What fate has decreed
by SongandDance
Summary: Marielle makes a deal with Hermaeus Mora for the First Dragonborn, now she hopes she will not regret it.
1. Prologue

She knew that making a deal with a Daedra wasn't the best decision she ever made but it was the only option she had.

It was the only option, right?

"Very well, Dragonborn" she shivered as Hermaeus Mora's voice echoed throughout Apocrypha "I will release Miraak to you"

With that he flicked his tentacle, Marielle visibly cringed as the former dragon priests body was separated from the appendage with a sickening sound.

Miraak's unconscious form landed in front of her with a loud thud, she rushed over to him as she gathered what was left of her magicka to use her healing spells. Grabbing ahold of his upper body she pulled him closer to her while pouring the healing energy into his bloodied chest. She could see the tissue start to regenerate around the wound as his irregular raspy breaths slowly normalized. Marielle's brows furrowed together as she felt a strange pulling sensation from him, she shook her head as she finally let out the last of her magicka to fully close the wound.

She sighed in relief, for now he was out of immediate danger. Looking down at the man she held in her arms she realized that there was no guarantee that he would go along with her plan, in fact it was just as likely he would kill her and get back to whatever it was he intended to do after escaping Apocrypha.

"Do not worry, my champion" Marielle grimaced as she gently laid the mans body on the ground "It will be unlikely for him to try to slay you...for awhile at least. And should he try, it will end badly for him"

What did he mean by that?

She realized her confusion must have been plain to see as Hermaeus Mora gave a slow chuckle. A mass of tentacles wrapped around Miraak while holding her in place, Marielle struggled as one attached itself to Miraak's mask.

What was he doing?

"Miraak has taken knowledge from me" he explained, the tentacle looking as if it were now piercing through the mask and into the dragon priests forehead "Knowledge that I am not willing to part with"

She then heard a loud scream, it was the same agony filled one she had heard from Stron Crag-Strider before his lifeless body fell to the ground. Marielle would never forget his horror filled expression looking up at her nor would she forget Frea's hysterical sobs as she clung to her father.

She watched Miraak's body convulse violently as Hermaeus Mora tore through his mind, bile rising in her throat as her small frame shook in terror. The scene in front of her had lasted for a minute, but to Marielle that minute had seemed like an eternity. She continued to stare ahead, too frightened and shocked to do anything else.

"Miraak harbored fantasies of rebellion against me. Learn from his example. Serve me faithfully, and you will continue to be richly rewarded"

Marielle felt sick, and as soon as the tentacles had finally let her go she clamped her hand over her mouth. She was breathing sharply through her nose trying to calm herself as she fought away the nausea.

A large part of her regretting ever setting foot on Solstheim, going into the temple and touching that damned book. She wished that the cultists had never heard of her, wished that they had never sought her out.

"I will allow you to remain in the mortal realm for now. When the times comes, you shall return to me"

And with his final words, Marielle's vision turned black as she was thrown back into her world. The sense of vertigo overwhelmed her as she could hear people walking towards her.

"Hmm. I see you're still alive and you brought someone back with you" she heard Neloth as he stood in front of her. Marielle looked up to see his calculating stare while his apprentice, Talvas, looked nervous. She glanced down to her side at Miraak, it seemed that he didn't regain consciousness and probably wouldn't anytime soon.

"Any chance that you have a spare beds I could use?" She asked as she stood up shakily, not realizing how much energy the fight actually took out of her.

"Follow me" Neloth huffed, Marielle helped Talvas with picking up Miraak. After being lead down a hallway into a small room with two cots, Marielle placed Miraak onto one while she practically fell onto the other.

"Since you are in no condition to explain what happened, it seems that we will have to converse tomorrow" With that Neloth and Talvas walked out of the room, Marielle sighed as she shifted on the cot into a more comfortable position. She closed her eyes, the fatigue from what just happened was now too much to fight.

"I hope it was worth it" And with that she fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Author's note: Just a short prologue


	2. Tel Mithryn

Marielle woke when she had heard a thud followed by a groan of pain; sitting up she looked to her side to see that Miraak had finally regained consciousness and was currently on the floor trying to move away from the cot.

"I don't think you should be trying to move around just yet" upon hearing her voice, Miraak instantly stopped and looked up at her. She had forgotten to take off his mask, but she swore she could feel his burning glare from behind it.

"You're in Nirn" she said softly "Solstheim. In Tel Mithryn, to be precise"

Miraak didn't respond as he continued to stare at her, Marielle shifted uncomfortably. What was he thinking? Was he going to say anything?

"Here. Let me help you" she said getting up from her cot, she walked up to him and bent down. Miraak slapped away her hands as she reached out, Marielle immediately leaned away from him with a perplexed look.

"I don't need your help, Dragonborn" Marielle never once heard anyone address her with such contempt before and was surprised when she felt a pang of hurt in her chest. She shrugged the feeling off almost immediately, the man had never bothered to hide what he thought of her before, she was unsure why it upset her now.

"Whether or not you accept my help you know you need to rest" she let out a frustrated huff when he didn't respond, he turned back to the cot and struggled to pull himself up. Marielle didn't make a move to help him, as he would most likely lash out again if she attempted to go near him.

* * *

Miraak knew she was right; his body was incredibly weakened, both from their fight and from his near death experience. But how was he still alive after he was impaled?

With much effort, he finally getting back into the cot, he rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. He remembered one of Hermaeus Mora's tentacles going through his torso and cursing out both Mora and the Breton girl before losing consciousness.

He should be dead.

He turned his head to look at the girl once more, briefly pondering what she did to ensure his survival.

The little fool must have made a deal, it was the only explanation. He had noticed that she shifted uncomfortably whenever she was under his gaze, he felt a twisted sense of satisfaction.

"I'm going to speak with our host. I'll be back as soon I can" she muttered, walking out of the room and out of sight. Miraak said nothing, turning to continue staring at the ceiling. His plans would have to change, But for now he would rest and regain his strength, he sighed heavily before closing his eyes to try and sleep a little longer.

* * *

Marielle made her way to Neloth's lab, it was where he likely was. Walking into the room she was greeted with the sight of Teldryn landing on the floor from the magical device from the entrance. She internally praised Neloth's ingenuity, not wanting to vocalize her admiration, the man didn't need his already large ego to be further inflated.

"You're back" he greeted as a smile formed on Marielle's face, She liked Teldryn. The sell-sword was decent company, often sharing little tidbits of information about Solstheim and even instructing her a little on how she could improve in using her enchanted ebony sword.

"How is Meeko?" she asked, Marielle had decided that she wouldn't bring her dog inside of Neloth's home as she wasn't willing to risk any injury to him trying to use the device in the main entrance. The dog had been her faithful companion for some time now, having found him on the road heading back to Solitude. She had taken pity on the dog when she discovered him guarding his deceased owner.

"Poor thing was restless when you went into Apocrypha. Had to take him for a walk. A long one" Teldryn walked to her side "Since you're finally back, I assume Miraak is taken care of"

"Well, it's a bit complicated" Marielle gave a small sheepish smile while running a hand through her dark hair and wincing slightly as she hit some tangles, she would have to groom herself later. Teldryn raised a brow but didn't say anything more as they made their way towards Neloth's staff enchanting room. The Telvanni wizard looked to see the two companions walk in, he turned to them fully and set his attention on the Breton.

"So you were going to explain what happened in Apocrypha" Marielle nodded , Neloth looked to the entrance "Drovas! Fetch me a cup of Canis Root tea"

She could hear the Dunmer steward make an unintelligible reply while rushing to the entrance. Her lips quirked up in amusement before she returned her attention to Neloth and recounted what had taken place in as much detail as she could remember. Neloth listened closely and nodded after she had finished talking.

"Not sure if that was such a good move" Teldryn frowned, Marielle bit her lip nervously as she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms "Who knows what he might do now that he's out"

"I can see your reasoning behind your decision, but it is still a gamble" Neloth then gave a contemplative look "Though I am curious how a 4,000 year old dragon priest will adjust to a modern Tamriel"

Marielle gave an exasperated look, trust him to see the whole situation as an opportunity for study and experimentation. She shook her head and pushed herself away from the wall; walking towards the door, she realized that she needed to check on the sleeping priest. Teldryn immediately followed, walking to her side.

Both stepped aside quickly as Drovas bolted into the room carrying a hot cup of tea, they marveled at how he managed not to spill the liquid and burn himself "Finally! Took you long enough"

Marielle rolled her eyes, wondering if Neloth would ever develop manners or even a bit of gratitude for his workers. She and Teldryn shared a looked, shaking their heads as they made their way back towards the guestroom.

"I know it's a risky move" Marielle glanced up at the Dunmer, who had an apprehensive expression on his face "But he may prove himself to be helpful to us in the end"

"And if he doesn't?" Teldryn asked

Marielle exhaled slowly through her nose, stopping in front of the guestroom doorway "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it"

Entering the room she looked to Miraak, he was still reclined on the cot. The gentle rise and fall of his chest indicated to her that he was sleeping; Marielle walked up to him and leaned down, looking over his still torn robes. She would have to mend and clean them later, the flesh where his wound had been was still red and probably tender, by the looks of it he would still need some time to fully recover.

Her hand moved to finally take off his mask, her curiosity taking hold of her, she wanted to see what the man looked like. His hand suddenly shot out and grabbed her wrist, Marielle paused and blinked in surprise, she had thought he had been fast asleep.

Getting her bearings together, she had attempted to free herself from his grasp by shaking her arm. At this, Miraak's grip tightened and she winced slightly from the pain, not wanting to further agitate him she stopped and waited for him to release her hand.

Sensing that she would not put up a fight, Miraak released her with a hidden sneer. Now free, Marielle brought her hand towards her and gently rubbed her wrist while using a minor healing spell to alleviate the soreness.

A noise grabbed the attention of both Dragonborn, they turned to see that Teldryn had his sword out and his hostile gaze was firmly on Miraak.

"It's alright, Teldryn. I'm okay" Marielle said attempting to placate the mercenary, Teldryn's eyes locked with her own. He looked into her pleading eyes for a moment before hesitantly putting away his weapon, he didn't move from his spot and readied himself should the former priest try anything.

Marielle smiled gratefully at Teldryn before turning to look back at Miraak as she lifted her hands to show him the glow of a restoration spell. Miraak didn't say anything nor indicate that he was against her healing him; deciding to take a chance she placed her hands over his torso and let the magicka flow out, she heard him sigh.

"What do you want?" Miraak asked, his tone devoid of any emotion. Marielle looked at him; trying to catch a glimpse of his eyes through the slits of his mask, but they were concealed by the shade.

She looked down at chest to assess her work before she responded.

"I need your help to kill Alduin"

* * *

Author's note: Another chapter up! Hope you all enjoyed it. Just so you all know the ebony sword Marielle uses is NOT the one you get from Mephala.


	3. Out to sea

It had taken Miraak about a week and a half to recover just enough strength for them to travel to Raven Rock and arrange passage with Gjalund Salt-Sage back to Skyrim. His wound healed nicely, with only a very faint scar left.

Though he loathed to admit it, the Last Dragonborn was a decent healer. During his recovery, he discovered that his time in Mora's realm had affected his senses immensely, dulling them to the point where he had nearly forgotten that they had existed in the first place.

Though his wound had healed in a short amount of time, he needed to rest longer and wait for his senses to adjust to his surroundings. The first few days were the worst; his senses were overloaded, the smells, sounds and light from the sun had caused him such misery.

Nausea from even the most subtle of scents, he still couldn't stand the smell of that damned Canis Root tea that the arrogant wizard was so fond of. Headaches from both the brightness of the light and the sounds of everything around him, and right now he was thankful that the worst was behind him.

He found himself staring out onto the water, he had mixed emotions being back in Tamriel. And while he was obviously glad that he was out of Apocrypha, he couldn't help but feel distressed.

Setting foot outside of Tel Mithryn, seeing the ash covered land sent a feeling of anguish which was deepened as they set foot in Raven Rock. It seemed that nothing of his Solstheim had survived to the present, he was grateful that the Breton or anyone else for that matter could not see through his mask.

He sneered as he glanced at the girl, had it not been for her meddling his plans would have come to fruition and he would have been ruling Solstheim. It was all her fault that he was now in this troubling situation, her fault that he was currently weakened and forced to rely on others.

When he found out that he couldn't use his shouts he was livid, all his power was practically nonexistent. His resentment increased when he had watched her deal with some Orc moneylender, he had walked up to their group as they first set foot into the settlement and demanded that she give him 1,000 septims to pay off some Dunmers debts and she had even apologized to him and paid it in full.

What she should have done was destroy that simpleton for such blatant disrespect. She should have used her Thu'um to have them all groveling at her feet, like he would have done. But no, the girl withheld from doing so.

Even during their fight in Apocrypha,he noticed that she had hardly used her shouts and relied mostly on hit and run tactics while summoning atronachs to distract him. It seemed that the girl would not put her birthright to use.

 _All that power at her fingertips and she chooses not to use it_ , he thought with a glower. And as much as it disgusted him to no end, he needed her to build up his power back to what it used to be.

* * *

"Same fee as always. 250 septims for passage back to Skyrim" Gjalund said as he held out his hand, Marielle nodded as she gave the Nord a small coin purse.

"Ready to leave?" She asked, looking back at her male companions. Teldryn nodded and Miraak, as usual, didn't say a word to her. Marielle pursed her lips in annoyance as she picked up her belongings, called her dog and walked onto the ship.

She was ecstatic that she was heading back to Skyrim; though the cold region wasn't her beloved High Rock, she felt that she could honestly call the place home away from home.

As she was settling on the deck, she heard someone clear their throat. Marielle looked up to see Gjalund, the man looked a bit on edge.

"He's not going to cause trouble is he?" Gjalund asked, his tone filled with nervousness as he motioned to the other Dragonborn. The man was looking out to the sea, ignoring the nervous crew as they tried to go about their duties without disturbing him.

Maybe she should have insisted that Miraak take off his mask before talking with the captain.

"No, Why?" Marielle asked, hoping that he wouldn't refuse to sail.

"It may be my mind playing tricks on me. But, there's something about him that doesn't feel right. And it's almost familiar" Gjalund said, his body shuddered visibly.

She didn't say anything. After all, how could someone explain that one of their followers was a former Dragon cult priest that they freed from a Daedric Prince's realm without looking crazy.

"Is this going to be a problem?" She finally asked, her voice tense and uneasy.

The Nord captain gave a contemplative look as Marielle silently prayed to the Divines that he would still allow them passage.

"No, it shouldn't be. As long as he obeys the rules of my ship" Gjalund finally replied, shaking his head before heading off to the helm. Marielle sat down and let out a shallow sigh of relief, grateful that there wouldn't be a delay in heading over to the mainland.

She heard a low whine to her side and felt something warm settle onto her lap. She looked down to see Meeko, his eyes looking up at her with an almost pleading expression as a low growling sounding came from the dog's stomach.

"Oh my. Are you hungry?" She asked with an amused smile. She grabbed her bag, took out a smoked piece of Horker meat and held it out. Meeko barked happily as he bit into it and wolfed it down as Marielle giggled.

"May I ask you something?" She startled before turning to look at Teldryn and nodded, she hadn't heard him walk up to her. The Dunmer sat beside her, crossed his legs and stroked Meeko's head.

"We didn't go and say goodbye to the Skaal. I know you've befriended them and I figured you'd want to see them before we leave" Marielle held Teldryn's gaze briefly before casting her eyes downwards, guilt filling her chest.

"After what's happened. I don't think I could look them in the eyes, especially Frea. They've suffered so much, being controlled and losing Storn the way they did because I talked him into reading the black book to confront Hermaeus Mora. It's all my fault. I just...I don't know" She said, not completely sure on how to articulate her thoughts and feelings.

It was times like this, that Marielle wished that she had a different life. Wished that the choices she made didn't have other people's lives hanging in the balance.

"Hmm. Being a bit harsh on yourself, don't you think? You didn't do too bad, you did manage to free Solstheim" Teldryn said, hoping to ease her mind.

"You can't say that everything is your fault. After all, you can't take credit for his work" Teldryn motioned towards Miraak discreetly.

Marielle smiled sadly at her friend before she glanced at the man from the corner of her eyes. The two Dragonborn had rarely spoken to one another and the times they did converse, it was always brief and to the point, neither one wanting to be in the others presence for too long.

It was obvious that he did not like her. During the first few days his tone was always sharp and hinted that he was trying to keep his temper in check, his body language was tense whenever she got closer to him.

She decided that she could live with that. She didn't need him to like her, all she needed was his help in finally slaying Alduin. After all, it was something that should have happened so long ago.

 _Something that he should have done_ , Marielle thought, feeling bitter. She felt the ship sway as they left Raven Rock's port. Her eyes left Miraak's form as she stood up and grabbed her belongings to go settle below deck.

* * *

Marielle's stomach felt like it was doing flips, she never did enjoy sailing. She took deep breaths, trying to calm her seasickness as she reached for the bucket that was near her. just in case. Meeko was next to her, the dog was laying down and looking up at her as if sensing his owners discomfort.

She looked to Teldryn, the Dunmer had opted to use the same method as her and was sitting on his sleeping roll and concentrating on his breathing.

Next, she glanced around to check on her fellow Dragonborn. She scanned the hold and frowned when she failed to spot him. Getting up, she quickly walked over towards the area where the cargo was placed. Perhaps he decided to isolate himself from their group.

As she neared, she heard the sound of someone becoming sick. She looked around one of the larger boxes to see Miraak quickly pull down his mask. She realized at that moment that she had never seen his face, the only times that he probably ever removed his mask was when he ate in private and during his baths.

"Everything alright?" She asked as she took a hesitant step forward, Miraak turned to look at her and tensed up as if to warn her away. She stopped instantly.

"Do you need anything? Water, maybe?"

Silence.

"Well?" Marielle gave a frustrated look when continued to stare silently. The man was so stubborn; he didn't have to like her, but surely he must know when he needed help from her or others.

After a minute, she gave up. Marielle stalked off with a huff, she didn't need to deal with his attitude at the moment.

Reaching her sleeping roll, she climbed into it and layed down. Perhaps getting some sleep would help ease her, in mind and body.

She turned and nestled closer to Meeko, Marielle sighed in weariness. The few troubling weeks she spent in Solstheim were catching up to her it seemed as she suddenly felt exhausted.

Closing her eyes, she hoped that she would get enough rest during the time they were on the ship before reaching the mainland.

* * *

Author's note: So, neither Dragonborn like each other at the moment, but that will change in later chapters. And I know the story is a bit slow on action scenes, the next chapter will probably have one though. Hoped you all liked this one.


	4. Bandits

Marielle shivered slightly and wrapped a fur cloak around herself as she stepped out onto Windhelm's bridge. The crisp early morning air biting her skin, despite the cold, she was very glad to be back on land. She looked to her companions; Teldryn shuddered from a particularly cold breeze that passed by while Miraak showed no obvious signs of discomfort, though that was likely due to his heritage.

Marielle walked toward Windhelm's stable with her group trailing closely behind, she was adamant about employing Alfarinn and his carriage.

"So, Where to?" Teldryn asked as he walked up beside her.

"We'll be going to Whiterun first, I need to leave a few things at home" Marielle replied as she brought attention to her rather full bags by shaking them.

"And after that?" Teldryn inquired further.

Marielle didn't respond right away as she gave thought to his question, she then remembered that Miraak had tried to use his Thu'um during his recovery process and had failed to use any of his shouts.

"Can you use any shouts at all?" She asked, looking up.

Marielle was slightly smaller than the average Breton female and only came up to the middle of Miraak's chest.

"No" He responded with irritation evident in his voice, he did not like being reminded of his drawbacks, Marielle nodded in acknowledgement.

He needed to relearn how to use shouts. Without them, he would be of little use and more than likely be killed when they finally faced the World-Eater.

"Right. We'll be heading to Riverwood and then to Bleak Falls Barrow" Marielle said, she saw Teldryn give an inquisitive look her way.

"There's a word wall inside the tomb. It was the first one I ever encountered" She explained.

She glanced back to see that Miraak's body language had changed. Before mentioning the word wall his posture was that of indifference, now his back was straight and his head was tilted towards her, his interest piqued.

She repressed a shudder, not sure if she wanted his attention on her. Marielle shook her head before returning her gaze forward.

She gave a smile as Windhelm's carriage came into sight, happy that the driver was available. She waved enthusiastically to the Nord man, Alfarinn waved back in greeting as they neared.

"Need a ride?" The red haired man asked, Marielle nodded as she reached for a coin purse.

"We're headed to Whiterun. Are your fees still the same?" She asked and handed over his payment when he confirmed.

She motioned to the two men and walked to back of the carriage, she placed her bags on first before she helped Meeko up. After helping her dog, Marielle pulled herself into the carriage and made herself comfortable.

"All settled in?" Alfarinn asked as he looked back at the group, Marielle gave a quick nod.

The carriage rocked when the horse began to move forward, Marielle gently stroked Meeko's head as the dog gave a low whine at the sudden movement. The dog moved closer to the Breton, Marielle gave an affectionate smile. She heard Miraak give out a disgusted sound and sent him a disapproving look in return.

After the dog had calmed down, Marielle took out one of her newly acquired books in order to pass the time as it would be a while before they reached Whiterun.

She hoped that the ride to Whiterun would be uneventful.

* * *

She felt the carriage slow down significantly before coming to a complete stop. She glanced up from her book to see Alfarinn holding the reigns with a nervous look, something on the road was clearly distressing him.

Marielle set the book down before leaning out of the side to look ahead to see why they had come to a stop. In front of them was a small group of armed men, she sighed in disappointment, knowing all too well where this scenario was likely headed.

A rather large, burly Nord man clad in heavy looking iron armor took a step closer to the carriage, indicating that he was the one in charge.

"This is a toll road. So pay the fee of 500 gold each and there won't be any trouble, got it?" The leader said as his followers grabbed onto their poorly maintained weapons, in an effort to intimidate them. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, the display failed to impress her.

Marielle was sorely tempted to summon an atronach to let loose on the bandits and be done with it. But, she suppressed the urge as she decided that she had to try and convince the group to let them pass without having to resort to bloodshed.

"Watch my back?" Marielle whispered.

Her eyes met Teldryn's, the Dunmer nodded before quietly climbing out of the back as to not bring attention to himself and readied himself to strike should the group outright attack them.

"You. Stay put." She said firmly to Miraak, she did not trust him to mind himself and get them into trouble.

Miraak bristled, he did not like the way she spoke to him as if he were a child. He clenched his fist tightly as he held in his rage and stared into Marielle's face and despite disliking his eyes on her, she firmly held his gaze with her own.

"Fine. Be quick" he said in an almost growling tone.

Marielle stood up, jumped out of the carriage and walked cautiously to the front with Meeko trailing closely behind.

She gave the driver a reassuring smile before turning her attention to the bandits, more specifically their leader. If she could persuade him to accept a smaller payment and have him back off, his lackeys would likely follow his lead and let them leave without hassle.

"We're not really worth the effort, so how about 200?" She asked

At her proposal, the leader stared at her for a moment with a thoughtful look on his face. He then shook his head.

"No, I don't think so. 500 gold or your lives" he said with finality in his voice.

Marielle's shoulders dropped slightly. She really didn't want to fight them, but it didn't look like they would accept her offer. She put her hand on her sword discreetly while she gathered her magicka into her left hand.

"I'm afraid we don't have the gold" She said. The bandit leader looked back to his group before giving a menacing smirk and grabbing onto a battleaxe that was strapped to his back.

"Well, that's too bad. Now, we'll just take your gold from your corpses" He said as he took a large, heavy step towards her and the carriage.

 _FUS RO DAH_!

The shout sent the bandits flying backwards quite a distance, Marielle wanted the group to be out of reach of the carriage.

While they were getting their bearings together, Teldryn quickly took out his sword before charging forward with flames engulfed in his left hand. The nearest bandit to him was still dazed as the Dunmer sent a firebolt into his chest. With a startled cry, the bandit began patting at his attire to put out the flames.

Meeko dashed forward to the distracted man, clamped down on his arm and began to violently shake his head from side to side. The man screamed, then took out an iron dagger from its scabbard and raised it over his head. Before he could bring down the weapon, Teldryn came up to him and ran him through and the bandit fell to the ground, his body becoming motionless.

Marielle summoned a frost atronach, the large creature went forward with loud steps as it raised its arm-like appendage. She quickly ran to the nearby thicket to wait for an opening to strike any of the distracted men.

She saw her chance when one of the men wearing light fur armor looked to be too engaged in combat to notice her. She swiftly came up behind him and slashed at his exposed legs before running back into hiding, he cursed out loud as he went down to his knees. The atronach took advantage of the wounded bandit and struck the downed man on the chest.

Seeing that one of their comrades fall to the ground dead, the other bandits rushed to the atronach and began hacking at it. They jumped out of the way as quickly as they could whenever the creature would lash out. After a few hard strikes, one of the frost atronach's limb came off. It turned its body to use its other limb and with its strength it struck the ground as hard as it could, the men stumbled back but quickly recovered and moved out of the way.

Marielle continued to wait, not wanting to risk injury from her own frost atronach. She frowned when the bandits began to wise up, one of the bandits created a diversion as the others attacked. With their new method, it didn't take long for the atronach to weaken and the leader brought his battleaxe down on the atronach's head.

As the creature dissipated, the bandits turned and ran towards with their weapons ready to hack away.

 _FEIM ZII GRON!_

Her body became phantom like as the weapons passed through her, she gave an amused smile as she saw the incredulous looks on their faces. She sprinted away to put some distance between her and the surviving bandits. They followed her as she ran in the direction of Teldryn and her dog.

Meeko barked and snapped at one of the men as they came closer, the man swung his mace and struck the dog on his side, Meeko gave a sharp yelp and ran away with a limp as fast as he could before the bandit got in another hit.

Teldryn summoned a flame atronach, the creature immediately floated forward and threw a firebolt at the group. With the men temporarily distracted, Teldryn engaged the one who carried the mace in combat as the other bandit went after the atronach. Marielle went back to her corporeal form when she spotted an opening and slashed at the leader, shallowly hitting him in the arm before moving out of his reach.

Suddenly, she saw movement in the corner of her eye; Miraak had joined in and was currently in a fight with the last bandit as he finished off the atronach. He was using the twisted, ugly sword that he had used in Apocrypha. She gave a disturbed look whenever he swung his sword, remembering the tentacle that came out of the blade.

She dodged the leader's battleaxe just in time as it was embedded into the ground where she was previously standing. She gasped as the bandit quickly pulled the battleaxe from the earth and slashed into her side.

She instinctively brought forth her magicka as she used a telekinesis spell to push the leader away from her. The man let out a loud yelp as he hit the ground some distance away from her.

Marielle put her hand on the gash to stop the blood flow and as painful as it was, she was very relieved to feel that the wound wasn't as deep as she feared it might have been.

Using her magicka, she used the Close Wounds spell and let out a sigh as she felt the pain melt away and her flesh knitting back together.

"I'll have your head!" She heard a loud battle-cry and looked up to see the leader charging her.

He was stopped by flames bursting in his face, Teldryn ran to her side as he concentrated another firebolt in his hand and threw it into the man's chest. Teldryn slashed at the others already damaged arm; creating a huge, deep gash before stabbing him in the leg which made the bandit lose his grip on his weapon and fall to the ground.

"I yield! I yield!" the man yelled as he held his bloodied leg in pain.

Teldryn was about to cut him down when Miraak stalked over to the injured man and brought down his sword, the man fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Marielle was relieved that the fight was over, yet saddened that she wasn't able to get the group to back off.

"I told you to be quick" Miraak said in a chiding tone as he cleaned his weapon with a piece of linen he took out of a small pouch he had on his belt.

Marielle scowled before turning around when she heard Meeko give a pitiful, pain filled whine. She gathered together her magicka and cast a healing spell on the dog, Meeko barked happily and licked his owner on the cheek.

The group gathered any valuables from the bandits before cleaning their weapons and attire. Marielle looked down at her attire and decided to change into a different outfit entirely and took out her spare clothing. After she changed she looked over Alfarinn and his horse and was glad to see that they were unharmed, though the man still shaken from being in close proximity of their fight. But, he thankfully managed to calm himself enough to continue to Whiterun.

* * *

Author's Note: This is my first time writing an action scene and please, don't be shy to give any constructive criticism for future fight scenes. I may up the rating for future canon violence and I'm currently undecided if there'll be a romance or if they just become close later on.


	5. Bleak Falls Barrow

Once they had arrived at Whiterun stables in mid afternoon, Marielle bid the driver a safe journey back to Windhelm. The group walked through Whiterun's gates, Marielle greeted the stationed guards with a smile, who nodded in return. She let out a content sigh, glad to be back in her favourite city in Skyrim.

"So, this is Whiterun... the pride of Skyrim. Doesn't look like much to me. Now Blacklight on the other hand, that's a proper city." Teldryn remarked, looking around with an unimpressed face as a nearby guard gave an offended huff.

Marielle shot the man an apologetic look as they walked by before gently chastising the elf as she would a child, Teldryn seemed to be more amused than insulted. The War Maiden's outdoor forge had caught the dark elf's eye, he grabbed the hilt of his sword and made his way toward the building.

"You go on. I need to do a little maintenance" Teldryn said, patting the elven made scabbard

"Okay then. My home's right next door" Marielle pointed to the small, cozy looking house; Teldryn gave a small wave before continuing towards the forge.

Opening the door, Marielle was greeted with the sight of her ever loyal housecarl Lydia tidying up. At hearing the door opening, the tall Nord woman turned to see the Breton enter the house with Meeko, who went to sit near the fire for warmth.

"Honor to you, my Thane" Lydia greeted with a smile, Marielle smiled back and took out some rare books she had found on Solstheim and placed them on one of the shelves. Lydia immediately took notice of her Thane's newest companion as he stepped into the house and felt her hair stand on edge as her intuition was telling her to keep up her guard.

"Everything is well?" Lydia inquired, Marielle faced the warrior to see her giving Miraak a suspicious look.

"Everything is fine" She said in what she hoped was a soothing tone, she didn't want Lydia to aggravate the surly man. Miraak, on the other hand, was ignoring both of them and currently scanning over her household. If he sensed Lydia's discomfort of him, he didn't seem to care in the slightest.

"Shall I prepare a place for him to sleep?" Lydia asked hesitantly.

"No, we'll be leaving for Riverwood soon. Oh, could you clean and mend these for me while I'm gone?" Marielle asked, holding out her torn and bloodied outfit. Lydia nodded, taking the stained garments and walking out of the house to launder them.

Miraak slowly walked around the room on the main floor, looking at the various cluttered objects that the last Dragonborn had collected during some of her travels.

The Breton was currently putting her acquisitions away on various shelves and display cases. She gave a small pout when she accidentally knocked over a few things before putting them back into place, he almost let out a derisive snort.

"Are you quite done?" He asked, sounding impatient as he crossed his arms. Marielle looked at him briefly with an unimpressed expression before she put away the last of her belongings.

"Almost. I just need to grab a few things before we leave" She responded.

He shook his head before turning to look at her collection once more and frowned as one of the swords she had put on display had caught his eye, he recognized it as being a Daedric artifact. Dawnbreaker, he believed it was named and recalled that it was associated with Meridia and on a shelf nearby was a star shaped object, she had Azura's Star.

 _Idiot girl_. He thought venomously, it seemed she had a penchant for consorting with the Daedric Princes even before meeting with Hermaeus Mora and wondered just how many Daedra she had communicated with. Miraak scowled as he turned his head to look at the last Dragonborn, feeling his pent up anger and frustrations rise up to the surface.

Marielle walked over to one of the cabinets and took out a few potions, mainly for healing and stuffed them into her bag. She turned to face Miraak and found him staring at her, she furrowed her brow.

"Tell me, Is it just simple-mindedness that you deal with the Daedra so freely?" He asked in a disdainful tone "Perhaps that is why you bargained with Mora so easily"

Marielle was taken aback, though they didn't get along very well, she never thought his tongue would be so sharp. Her offended expression slowly morphed into a deep scowl as she stood up straight, her dark eyes had a fiery look to them as she glared at the man.

"You, of all people, should not judge. I never explicitly made deals to get those artifacts and besides you were the one to go to Hermaeus Mora willingly in the first place. I would never have accepted his offer if not for you" She said with a slight quiver in her voice.

At her outburst, Miraak visibly tensed before walking slowly and deliberately towards her; Marielle flinched slightly as he neared, apprehensive about his intentions but she didn't move from her spot, unwilling to let him intimidate her.

He stopped in front of her so closely that there was little space between them, she tilted her head to look up at him, she would not back down. She could hear his heavy breathing while staring into the slits of his mask.

"You know absolutely _nothing_ " His tone was icy and his anger radiated off of him.

They continued to stare at one another until a low growling was heard, both looked to see Meeko crouched aggressively and baring his teeth at Miraak. They immediately moved away from each other, Marielle picked up her bag before calling the dog to her side and walking to the entrance.

"Let's go" She said in a tired voice as she opened to door and stepped out, Miraak reluctantly followed. Marielle gave a quick farewell wave to Lydia before heading over to Adrienne's forge.

They met Teldryn at the forge just as he was putting the finishing touches on his weapon. The Dunmer polished the sword and put it back into the scabbard before turning to greet his employer; he hesitated for a moment, seeing the sullen expression on Marielle's face.

"You alright?" He asked as he eyed her male counterpart, having a feeling that he was responsible for her mood, Marielle snapped out of her brooding to give a small smile.

"Yes, I'm fine. Are you finished with the forge?" She asked, Teldryn nodded as he picked up his bag before they walked towards the gates.

"Stay safe out there, Lady Marielle" one of the guards said as they stepped outside of Whiterun's walls, She said a quick 'thank you' before they continued onward to Riverwood.

* * *

Marielle was grateful that the journey was free from bandits and any hostile wildlife and the only problem they had encountered was the downpour that they were currently caught up in.

They reached the entrance way to the small village in the evening, the shops were now closed and the residents had turned in for the night.

The weather would not permit them to go any further and it was late in the evening, Marielle motioned for the two men to follow her and she lead them to the inn.

Reaching the porch of the building, the trio wrung out their soaked clothing. Marielle then looked to her dog and stroked her head.

"Sorry boy, You'll have to sleep out here tonight" She said as Meeko whined. To placate the dog, Marielle took out a dried piece of meat and gave it to him.

Upon entering, she could hear Sven playing the tune of 'Ragnar The Red' on the lute. Upon noticing her, the blond Nord gave her a scathing glare as she walked further into the inn and approached the bar.

"Hello Orgnar. Any rooms available?" She greeted the Nord with a friendly smile, the older man gave a nod.

"Yeah. We got two rooms available" he replied, motioning to his right. Marielle nodded and gave him 20 septims for both rooms and walked up to her companions.

"Okay, I've paid for two rooms. So, the both of you will have to share and be sure to ask the owner about extra bedding " She said, pointing towards the rooms. She picked up her bag and was about to retire to one of the rooms when she heard Miraak speak.

"No"

"No?" She repeated as she raised one of her brows.

"I refuse to share a room with him. I will have one to myself" He said as he crossed his arms.

Marielle gave an exasperated look; it seemed that he was going to be difficult, judging by his body language and at the moment, she really didn't want to get into another fight with him so soon and decided to comply with his wish.

"Alright, fine." she said before letting out a tired sigh. Miraak relaxed his stance before walking into the nearest room to him without saying so much as a thank you.

"Mind sharing a room, Teldryn?" She asked, mainly for politeness sake as Miraak had practically kicked her out of her room.

"Not at all" He replied before picking up his bag and walking into the unoccupied room. Marielle went up to speak with Orgnar while silently praying that everything that she had planned for the next day would go smoothly.

"Orgnar, Do you have any extra cots?"

* * *

Miraak sat on the bed, his right hand was in front of him as he concentrated. His eyes never leaving his palm, trying to will a flame into existence and failed. He snarled and clenched his hand into a tight fist, he had been trying to use his magicka to cast at least a novice leveled spell and had no luck so far.

He let out a heavy, frustrated sigh as he leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, another thing for him to rely on the girl for. If he didn't get a hold of his magika soon he might have to bring this to her attention.

Miraak scowled.

No. She didn't need to know a thing, he would take care of this on his own. What he needed to do was research to solve his problem and since Mora took away his knowledge, he would need access to Skyrim's infamous College of Winterhold.

Miraak nodded to himself, he would persuade the girl to travel to the remote hold. He closed his eyes and relaxed in the bed to slowly drift into sleep.

* * *

It was fortunate that they were no enemies in or around the barrow's entrance and for that Marielle was thankful, though the same could not be said for the inner part of the tomb. She distinctly remembered that she had cleared the tomb of the draugr that inhabited it, but then again they were undead and it looked like that they would just keep on reanimating.

She quickly sidestepped a charging draugr before turning around and thrusting her sword through its back, it let out a deep guttural sound before slumping then kicked it off the blade and quickly brought up her weapon to block another draugr's sword from cleaving into her. The draugr pushed down harder onto the weapon; forcing Marielle to drop onto one knee, she gritted her teeth as she struggled to hold her own.

The undead creature went flying as Teldryn slammed into its side then threw a firebolt at the downed draugr, setting it aflame. He turned to Marielle and held out his hand, she took it and Teldryn helped her to her feet.

The sound of a nearby draugr letting out a horrible gargled noise from its throat caught their attention as they looked to see Miraak push the unmoving creature off of his weapon.

"I believe that was the last one" Miraak said, sheathing his sword.

Marielle nodded, putting away her own sword before dusting off her attire. She then walked to the wood stairway, she was careful not to slip on the oil that covered the ground, silently glad she decided to leave Meeko with Alvor and his family and motioned for Teldryn and Miraak to follow her.

She walked to and over the stone bridge that connected the floors, her two companions right behind her. Teldryn glanced around, examining the room.

"Why the ancient Nords didn't just build a stairway straight to the upper floor is beyond me" Teldryn said dryly.

she thought the same, not seeing the purpose of practically walking in circles to reach a door.

She lead them down a corridor and through a doorway, they walked towards the dragon claw door, she hoped that the door would open without Lucan's claw. She looked to the side as she continued walking, the ancient carvings had always fascinated her and often wondered why there were animals depicted on them.

"They are totems that represent the gods." Miraak said, startling Marielle. She hadn't realized she voiced her thoughts.

"I see" she replied

Marielle felt relieved when the door began to slide downwards as they approached, she stepped through the entrance and checked for any potential threat. Not seeing anything, she and her companions continued onward.

"Huh. Not bad" Teldryn said, giving an appreciative look around the cavern

The ruins were just as imposing as she remembered, the sounds of the water rushing through became louder as they neared their destination. What little light was able to peak through the rocks highlighted what might have been a place of worship and the word wall behind it.

Once they crossed the small stone bridge and onto the platform, Marielle glanced at the sarcophagus and saw that it was empty.

What a relief. She thought as she turned to watch Miraak move toward the wall, she could still hear the sounds of chanting coming from the structure as Miraak paused briefly in front of the wall.

"I have it" He announced, his tone sounded almost elated and she couldn't help but smile a little.

"Good. Now we can get out of here" Marielle said as she turned to walked toward the stairway.

 _FUS RO DAH!_

Teldryn was sent flying into the wall, landing hard against the stone surface and he slumped to the ground.

Marielle's eyes widened as she looked to see a draugr overlord run toward her with a war axe raised. She quickly brought out her own weapon and parried the attack, she kicked it away from her and ran out of its way.

 _ZUN HAAL VIIK!_

She gritted her teeth when she felt her sword violently fly out of her hand as she regained her balance from the unexpected assault before looking up to see the overlord close in on her, she let her instincts take over and shouted.

 _WULD NAH KEST!_

She found herself near the stone bridge and a distance away from the creature, she heard the sound of metal clashing and looked to see Miraak engaged in combat. She watched as he blocked another attack before he used his free hand to punch the draugr, it staggered back for a moment before resuming its attack.

He parried every strike against him and had managed to get a few hits in. He dodged any strikes that he was unable to sufficiently block in time, it was almost graceful. Back in Apocrypha, she never really took the time to study his fighting technique and now she couldn't help but admire his skill.

She shook her head, she needed to join in and help kill off the draugr. She ran to where her sword had fallen and picked it up. Miraak and the overlord were to engrossed in their fight to notice Marielle approaching, she contemplated whether or not to summon an atronach to help with the fight.

Marielle decided against it as she glanced at Teldryn's unconscious form, she would need all the magicka she had to heal her friend.

She watched patiently as the two fought, waiting for a moment when Miraak was far enough for her to attack without him accidentally getting hurt. He must've finally noticed her as he kicked the draugr in her direction. She ran up, gripped the creatures shoulder and brought her weapon into its back, she twisted it before yanking it out and letting the draugr fall to the ground.

"Teldryn" She breathed out quietly and ran to the Dunmer. She went down to her knees, took off his helmet and carefully inspected him.

She was grateful that the chitin armor had absorbed most of the shock. She sent out a healing spell in order to mend any unseen injuries he had, Teldryn let out a small groan as he slowly regained consciousness. Marielle smiled, relieved that he was awake, she lowered her hand and stopped the flow of magicka.

"Ugh. If you're not going to finish healing me, at least pass me a healing potion" Teldryn said, holding out his hand.

Marielle laughed and said a quick apology before she reached inside her bag. She pulled out a minor potion and placing it in his hand. Teldryn muttered out a quiet 'thanks' before popping it open and downing it in one go. The effect was almost instantaneous as the mercenary slowly got to his feet.

"There's an exit just up those stairs. Though, we'll have to climb down the side of a small cliff" Marielle informed her companions.

She led them to and up the stairway while keeping a watchful eye on Teldryn, making sure that he didn't strain himself.

"Where is our next destination?" Miraak asked, he was walking in front of her and didn't bother to look back at her while speaking.

"There's another word wall not far from here" She replied in a hesitant tone.

"I'm sensing there's a catch" Teldryn said, walking beside her.

"Yeah. The last time I was in the cave, it was inhabited by warlocks" Marielle admitted as they walked out the exit and found themselves on the mountain side.

"Hmm. Now I see why you decided to leave the dog back in Riverwood" She heard Teldryn's voice as she looked down.

* * *

Author's note: Was difficult trying to describe the inner sanctum of Bleak Falls Barrow, so I may edit it later on.


	6. Fire

The travel back to Riverwood was uneventful, there were no animals and the only person they had come across was that strange woman, Anise. The guards greeted them as they came through the gateway to the small village, Marielle nodded back to them and walked up to Alvor's house. She knocked on the door and the tall Nord blacksmith answered.

"Ah! Welcome back, Marielle" he greeted with a friendly smile

"Hello Alvor. We're back to pick up Meeko, I hope he didn't cause you any trouble" She greeted in a slightly sheepish tone.

"Not at all. Though, she did get a bit lonesome for you when you left" Alvor replied before calling the dog over, Meeko dashed forward while wagging his tail excitedly when he saw Marielle.

"Thanks for keeping him while we were gone" Marielle gave the man a grateful smile as she stroked Meeko's head.

"Anytime. Be sure to say hello the next time you're back" The blacksmith smiled in return. He waved as the group set out to their next destination before closing the door.

"You know, Riverwood isn't that bad of a place. May consider settling down here" Teldryn remarked as he made a quick glance toward the Riverwood Trader or more specifically, the young Imperial woman that was sweeping the boardwalk.

"I'm fairly certain that Camilla is spoken for" Marielle responded with an amused smile, her tone had a trace of laughter.

As if on cue, her friend Faendal had appeared and approached Camilla with a basket of foods that he had prepared. The young woman saw him and gave him a bright smile as the wood elf held out the gift to her, she took the basket and kissed him on the cheek. Just then the both of them noticed their mutual friend and waved enthusiastically, Marielle waved back before walking towards the gateway.

"Oh well. Still seems like a decent place" Teldryn shrugged.

"Where exactly are we headed, Dragonborn?" Miraak asked with a little impatience, which Marielle decided to ignore.

"It's called Sunderstone Gorge. We'll have to take the road nearest to the lake and hopefully we'll make it there before the day is out" She replied as she looked up and noticed that the sun was over head, they had spent the entirety of the morning in the barrow.

"Right then. We might be able to make it there in a few hours if we keep going without stopping." Marielle added. speaking mainly to herself rather than to the two men.

"And hopefully, there won't be any trouble along the way" Teldryn added.

"Hopefully" Marielle agreed as they set off.

She could always appreciate the scenery along the road. The river, trees and even the mountainside despite the imposing view of Bleak Falls Barrow.

She would've liked to collect some of the flowers and other flora that she saw as they wallked by, but suppressed the urge to stop and pick them. They needed to keep on moving if they wanted to make it to their destination before sunset.

"Wonder what those are" Teldryn's voice broke the silence.

Marielle looked to see a structure with three large stones and remembered that she and the Nord Legionnaire, Hadvar, had come across it during their flight from Helgen.

"They're the Guardian Stones, I was told by a friend of mine that they are found throughout Skyrim and that touching one would activate it" Marielle explained.

"You ever try using it?" Teldryn asked, curiously.

"No, I wasn't born under any of those signs" Marielle replied, shaking her head.

"Which sign were you born under then?" The Dark elf inquired.

"The Lover, I haven't found it so far" She shrugged as she kept looking ahead.

The road seemed to be clear, Marielle saw nothing that would put them in immediate danger as she allowed herself to relax a little.

The path heading toward their destination wound upwards toward the south and soon they came to a crossroad and there stood a male khajiit in robes who was looking around randomly, curious as to what he was doing, Marielle approached him.

"Hello" Marielle greeted.

"M'aiq wishes you well. M'aiq knows many things, no?" The Khajiit said as Marielle raised a brow.

"Such as?" She asked with a guarded tone.

"Nords are so serious about beards. So many beards. M'aiq thinks they wish they had glorious manes like Khajiit ." he mused.

Marielle blinked.

"Too much magic can be dangerous. M'aiq once had two spells and burned his sweetroll" He continued "Perhaps those thoughts and feelings at the back of one's mind is there for a purpose"

"Umm. Alright." She replied in an unsure voice, now questioning the Khajiit's state of mind. Though, that last little bit had resonated with her.

"M'aiq is done talking now" he said abruptly before walking passed them and headed towards Riverwood. Marielle watched the Khajiit for a moment before looking to Teldryn and Miraak with a perplexed expression; Teldryn, who was equally just as confused as she was, just shrugged.

"The fool is most likely a follower of Sheogorath" Miraak insisted as he waved a hand dismissively.

"Now, we should continue on. I would prefer to be off the road by nightfall" He said, Marielle nodded before taking the lead with Meeko walking beside her.

They continued along the road and soon minutes went by as they walked in silence, Marielle didn't mind as she found it relaxing.

"Dragonborn" Miraak called, finally cutting the silence and gaining her attention, she looked to him.

"Do you know the locations of other word walls?" he asked, Marielle thought for a moment before responding.

"Well. Only a few" she finally admitted with a sheepish look, Miraak regarded her momentarily.

"Then perhaps we should seek information, I'm sure the College of Winterhold may hold some answers."

"They might. Huh, I never thought to look while I was there myself" She responded, a thoughtful look crossed her face. Miraak gave a little smile behind his mask, pleased that she would not need much coaxing into traveling to Winterhold.

"We will be heading to Winterhold, then?" Miraak asked.

"Yes. After we get the word from Sunderstone Gorge" She replied.

Satisfied with her answer, Miraak nodded.

* * *

They had been walking for some time now and save for the occasional deer or fox, the group saw no other living being or creature.

Marielle had seen some ruins back near the crossroad that they passed a while back and had been sorely tempted to go and explore them but stopped herself as they had a schedule to keep.

They soon approached a mill, Half-Moon Mill, she recalled the residents of Falkreath mention it to her the last time she had been in the hold. She had passed by the place the few times she was traveling this way going to and from the city.

Marielle then noticed the woman who owned the mill chopping some firewood and her husband was busy cutting some lumber. She was unsure why but she tended to get nervous when the couple would stare at her and whoever she was with, whenever she had company. She gave a slight shiver before picking up her pace to get out of their line of sight.

"Something the matter?" Teldryn asked.

"Honestly. I'm not sure, It's just that I don't feel comfortable around the owners of that mill, they seem rather...odd" Marielle admitted with a small shrug, Teldryn made a humming sound and said nothing more of it.

Only when they were far away enough for Marielle's liking did they slow down to a normal walking pace. She briefly looked to the sky and saw the sun was now farther into the west, it seemed that she miscalculated how long it would take them to reach their destination.

"Well, it looks like we'll have to find a place to rest for the night" She announced, glancing to Teldryn and Miraak.

Suddenly, she heard a loud and familiar sound, one could almost describe it as thunder and roaring wind put together and it immediately sent a feeling of apprehension through her. She quickly looked towards the sky to see a brown colored dragon coming closer to them. It let out a roar when it caught sight of them before letting out a stream of fire from its mouth.

"Run!" Marielle yelled before she and Meeko took off to the left, narrowly missing the flames.

She ran underneath the trees to hide from the dragons sight, as soon as she crouched beside one of the trees, she frantically looked around for Teldryn and Miraak and was relieved when she saw that they were on the opposite side of the road hidden in the bushes.

Teldryn summoned a flame atronach before gathering a firebolt in his hand and waited for an opportune moment to throw it. Marielle concentrated and gathered quite a bit of her magicka into her hand and summoned a storm atronach.

As soon as the atronach appeared it moved forward with its arms raised up, ready to let loose a bolt of lightning. The dragon fly in closer to where the summoned creatures had been summoned and as soon as it was in range the two atronachs and Teldryn let loose an onslaught of flame and lightning.

The dragon was able to dodge the flames but not the lightning due to its unpredictable nature. It let out a roar of pain as the sparks were visibly flowing across its body, as soon as the dragon recovered it flew upwards in an attempt to avoid another attack.

"Dragonborn! Use _Bend Will!_ Now!" Miraak shouted from his position.

She looked at him as she debated, after a moment she shook her head before turning her attention back to the dragon.

Marielle took out a magicka potion and quickly drank its contents, as she wiped her mouth she felt a brief sensation of energy rush through her. She had recovered just enough magicka to cast stoneflesh upon herself and waited.

The dragon sent a stream of flame at the storm atronach as it swooped down, Marielle grimaced when the atronach staggered back before being hit with more fire over and over. As if sensing that the creature was now significantly weakened, the dragon used its body to slam onto the storm atronach and with that final attack, it disappeared back into Oblivion.

The dragon used its tail to strike at the remaining summoned creature, successfully hitting it. Deciding that now was a good time as any to attack, Marielle ran forward and cut deeply along the membrane of its wing and quickly got out of its reach.

As it turned to attempt to catch Marielle in its jaws, Teldryn threw a firebolt into its face. The dragon let out an enreaged roar as it thrashed about voilently and repeatedly struck the flame atronach until it too disappeared. After finishing off the remaining atronach, the dragon turned its attention to Marielle and sent out flames.

Marielle managed to dodge the brunt of the attack but the flames scorched her arm; she hissed in pain, though the spell was able to prevent the fire from damaging her limb, she could still feel the heat.

Miraak took advantage of the dragons distraction and cut the undamaged wing, hacking into the flesh before stepping back, the dragon was now grounded. It quickly turned to where Miraak was and paused briefly before it snarled.

"Hi! Gruth Sonaak!" It yelled.

Before it could do anything, Teldryn attacked. He threw firebolts to distract it as Miraak got out of its line of sight. The dragon charged towards Teldryn despite its pain, as it was ready to send out more fire, Miraak was suddenly at the dragons side and swung his sword, the tentacle cut into its hide.

In retaliation, the dragon threw out its damaged wing, Miraak was caught off guard and was sent flying back.

"Hi fen grind hin oblaan het!" the dragon spoke with a venomous tone.

Before the dragon could attack, Meeko sprinted forward and clamped his jaws around its exposed neck. It shook its head roughly and the dogs grip let go, Meeko was thrown to the side with a yelp.

Seeing an opportunity, Marielle ran and climbed onto the dragons head, she wrapped her legs around its neck tightly and she internally cursed as her stoneflesh spell had worn off. She brought her sword up and stabbed the dragon in the eye and held on for her life as soon as it shook its head in rage and pain, she could feel drops of its warm blood spray onto her face.

She pulled her weapon out of its socket before stabbing the remaining eye, blinding it. With one sudden, violent shake; Marielle was bucked off. She landed onto her back and let out a short cry, Miraak once again was at the dragons side and brought the tip of his blade down into the back of the creatures neck and into its spinal cord, killing it.

Marielle painfully sat up and looked to see that the body had burst into flames, she heard the familiar _whooshing_ sound and saw the soul swirling around Miraak. He sighed almost blissfully as he stood taller, she repressed an envious feeling as he fully absorbed the dragons soul.

Marielle slowly got up, took out another magicka potion and drank it. She then cast a healing spell on herself and felt the aches fade, though she would need a nights rest to fully recover. She gathered more magicka before sending out healing energy to her companions.

"Why did you not use Bend Will?" Miraak asked as he approached her, his voice tense.

"I...don't care for it " Marielle replied, hesitantly.

Miraak said nothing as she could feel his judging stare, Marielle frowned at him.

"It's repulsive. Taking control over another like that" She explained, looking away from him.

"Repulsive? It allows us to dominate, to use our very nature. We are Dragonborn" his voice was firm. Marielle tensed before shuddering slightly at his words, his words having an unwelcome effect on her as she shook her head.

"I never wanted this... All I ever wanted was a normal life and I'll never get that chance because of you" Marielle snapped as Miraak stood rigid.

They both stared at each other, Marielle's breathing was quick and sharp while Miraak's hands were firmly clenched into fists at his side. Feeling uncomfortable and wanting to defuse the situation, Teldryn had walked between them.

"If I may. we should find a place to rest for the night" He implored, gently placing a hand on Marielle's shoulder. With that gesture, Marielle relaxed and gave an almost defeated look before walking ahead to look for a clearing to set up camp.

"Right. Let's go" she breathed out in a tired voice.

It didn't take them long to find a suitable clearing near the mountain side, a place that wasn't too far from their destination, either. Though, Marielle did have to go a little out of the way to find some water to clean herself with.

And by the time she had come back from her bath, Teldryn and Meeko were fast asleep. She made herself comfortable before she grabbed a piece of bread and some cured meat, she ate quietly while sitting on her sleeping roll, utterly exhausted from earlier.

"Dragonborn" She heard Miraak say in an almost soft voice, she looked up from her meal.

"If we are to be in each others presence, then perhaps we should attempt to be civil" He suggested, Marielle didn't say anything at first, her mind slowly processing what he said despite her fatigue.

"Yes. I agree" She finally responded.

And with that, the two Dragonborn sat in silence before they turned in for the night.

* * *

Miraak pushed off the mage from his sword, he wiped the blade before walking to the doorway. Pushing it open and heading down the corridor, he felt excitement as he approached the entrance to the final room. Another word of power was just beyond the door.

The girl walked to his side and he regarded her briefly, she was useful for the moment. Her knowledge of where some of the word walls were and her connections to Winterhold was indeed fortunate. And if he had to pretend to get along with her to get what he needed, so be it.

As soon as he opened the door, the mages in the rather large room let loose firebolts at them and summoning an atronach. Miraak snarled as he dodged the flames, he took in a breath before shouting.

 _FUS RO DAH_!

One of the mages was caught in the crossfire and sent flying back near the altar, landing with a loud thud. He turned to see the girl throw ice spikes at the flame atronach, the sharp icicles piercing the creatures body, slowing it down significantly. She then used an ice storm spell to further weaken it before taking out her sword from its sheath and finishing it off.

A sudden cry grabbed his attention, he turned to see the Dark elf setting the mage leader's robes on fire. As the mage was desperately trying to douse out the flames, the Dunmer took advantage of the situation and brought his sword through the mage's neck and the headless body fell to the ground with a thud.

Miraak could hear the sounds of chanting coming from the word wall, he stepped forward and could feel the energy flow from the structure and into his body. The chanting grew louder and louder as he continued to absorb the power from the wall until it stopped completely.

Miraak smirked underneath his mask. What he failed to notice as he concentrated getting the word of power was the mage he had shouted at earlier slowly get up into a sitting position and gathering flames to attack.

"BURN!"

He heard a loud, shrill voice yell as he quickly turned around and was met with a sight he didn't expect.

The girl had run in right front of him, her hands held up as she cast a ward spell. The flames from what looked to be an incinerate spell hit the ward and Miraak saw her stagger back as the spell broke from the attack. Fortunately for the both of them, Teldryn went into action almost instantly and struck down the remaining mage.

When the body slumped over, Miraak looked over to her and saw her use a healing spell. He then noticed that her hands had been slightly burned by the spell, the girl rubbed her hands together to alleviate the pain as her skin mended. Miraak stared at her, her willingness to defend him left him somewhat confused.

"Dragonborn. Are you alright?" he asked.

She looked up at him with a mildly surprised face before she slowly nodded.

"Yes, I'm fine." she responded as she looked him over, likely assessing him for any injuries.

"Then it is time for us to leave" Miraak stated as he made his way back to the doorway.

As they exited the cave, the dog barked happily when he saw his owner, his tail wagging. Miraak looked to the Breton as she fawned over the animal and cleared his throat, gaining her attention.

"I believe I owe you thanks" He hesitated as he spoke, not used to th idea of thanking others. Though, if she noticed she didn't let it get to her as she nodded to him with a half smile.

"Now, we should head for Winterhold" He continued as he picked up a bag.

"Actually, we used up the potions I brought with us. We'll have to make a stop in Whiterun to resupply" The girl shared as she picked up her belongings. Miraak felt a twinge of irritation spring up but quelled it immediately.

"So be it" Miraak responded.

After all, better to be prepared for their long journey to Winterhold.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, finally got another chapter finished and since this chapter contains more detailed violence I have decided to up the rating to M.

Hi! Gruth Sonaak! - You! Betrayer Priest!

Hi fen grind hin oblaan het! - You will meet your end here!


	7. Cure

The journey back to Whiterun had seen a few wolves and one sabre cat, but nothing that the group couldn't handle and at the very least, she could sell the pelts for a couple of septims each. The guards greeted them politely as they walked through the gateway, Marielle immediately headed towards Warmaiden's and approached the Imperial woman, who was tempering some armor on her workbench.

"Hello Adrianne" Marielle greeted.

"Hello. Looking to buy weapons or armor today?" she asked.

"No, not today. Though, I do have some pelts to sell" she responded, taking out the furs.

Adrianne looked them over before taking out a small bag of gold and gathered a few coins together.

"They look to be intact and I can get at least two leather from the cat pelt" she said, handing over the coins. Marielle thanked the woman before walking towards her companions.

Speaking of companions, she looked in the general direction of Jorrvaskr and wondered how the group was faring. Before leaving for Solstheim, Marielle had assigned Vilkas and Aela to take charge of advising the other members. Perhaps she should check on everything while she was back and turned to Teldryn.

"Here. I need you to purchase some healing and magicka potions from Arcadia" she said, pointing to the boat shaped building.

"I have to go and check up on somethings before we leave" Marielle took out a small bag of coins and handed it over to the Dunmer.

She then turned and walked up towards the Companions home. She saw no sign of the non-circle members, she figured that they were doing some work around Skyrim at the moment. Marielle saw Tilma sweeping the floors while she was talking with Vignar, she said a quick greeting before making her way to the sleeping quarters and could hear two male voices conversing.

She followed the sound to Vilkas' room and knocked gently, she heard a voice call out to her and she entered, seeing Vilkas sitting on his chair while Farkas was leaning on the wall.

"Harbinger" Vilkas greeted with a nod.

"Welcome home, sister" Farkas gave her a large, friendly smile as the stockier twin went up to her and gave her an enthusiastic clap on the back of her shoulder. Marielle lurched forward; fortunately for her, she was able to recover and catch herself from falling completely over, the big Nord really didn't know his own strength.

"Oops. Sorry 'bout that" he apologized as Vilkas chastized him.

"It's alright, Farkas" she giggled as she steadied herself, but then noticed that Vilkas had a troubled expression on his face and tilted her head in his direction.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, concern in her voice.

"Yes. Farkas and I have talked it over while you were away and decided that we wish to be cured" he responded, his voice determined as his brother nodded in agreement.

Vilkas stood up from his seat and approached her.

"Please. Tell me you know where the witches are" he said, looking into her eyes almost pleadingly.

"I do" she responded while nodding, at this Vilkas became more relaxed and the anxiety had visibly left his face.

"Good. We would like you to accompany us" he breathed out in relief.

Marielle blinked and she thought for a moment. She honestly wanted to agree to help them, but she had so much to do. Miraak needed her help, she had to deal with Alduin and the dragons, she wasn't so sure if she truely had the time.

She gave him a sympathetic look.

"Perhaps I can show you where they are on a map and..."

"Harbinger... Marielle, please." Vilkas cut her of with an uncharacteristically soft voice, Marielle had immediately stopped talking and was now looking up at him. He suddenly looked to be much older than he actually was, she felt pity as she took in his haggard look.

"I am tired of this, the beast blood. It weighs on my soul"

Marielle then felt a pang of empathy in her chest, remembering the restlessness, the nights with little sleep if any at all and most of all she remembered struggling to keep the beast blood at bay and poor Lydia had to bare the brunt of it, Marielle stared into his eyes for a moment, her shoulders dropped a little as she relented.

"Alright. I'll meet you at the gateway, I need to get some supplies first" she agreed as Vilkas let out a relieved sigh.

"Thank you. Come on Farkas" he waved over to his brother before they set off.

Marielle watched them leave the room and turn the corner, eager to finally be free from their burden, now all she had to do was somehow placate her fellow Dragonborn and convince him to allow her to help them.

* * *

"What?"

As she guessed, Miraak was less than enthusiastic about the delay in their journey to Winterhold. She took in a breath, readying herself for what was likely another argument between them.

"I promised to help two members of the Companions and in order to do that I will have to head back over to Falkreath hold" she explained in a soft tone, hoping not to provoke him too much.

Miraak was silent for a moment before finally replying.

"Need I remind you that without any shouts I cannot aid you when you face Alduin" Miraak spoke with a firm tone.

Marielle let out a soft sigh.

"Miraak, please. Just this once" she pleaded.

Miraak did not respond as he kept looking down at her, she could guess that he was currently giving her a disapproving look. Marielle shook her head, so much for trying to convince him to go along with her little detour.

"Look, I won't be there too long and if you don't want to come with us then you can wait here" she replied as she crossed her arms to show that she had made up her mind and would not change it. When he didn't say anything, she turned to go meet up with the twins and motioned for Teldryn and Meeko to follow.

The brothers were engaged in conversation as they waited patiently for her arrival, Farkas noticed and gave her a wave as she approached the gateway and Vilkas, who had his back to her, turned and greeted her before he noticed that she had company. Meeko immediately went to the larger brother with his tail wagging excitedly, Farkas went down to his knees and stroked the dog's head affectionately.

"Who is this?" Vilkas asked her as a look of suspicion formed on his face when he noticed the armored dark elf behind her.

"This is Teldryn Sero. I met him in Solstheim, he helped guide me around the island when I had business to take care of there" she explained as vaguely as possible.

"Best swordsman in all of Morrowind" Teldryn boasted as he gave a nod in greeting.

Marielle smiled, amusement coloring her face as she glanced at the Dunmer.

"I hope you won't mind the extra company" she gave a little smile.

Vilkas looked like he was going to protest for a moment before he sighed and then shook his head.

"No! No, I don't mind. But when we reach Ysgramor's tomb..." he trailed off.

"I know. I promise they'll wait outside" Marielle reassured him, understanding his concerns.

"Good. Let's go then" he said as he turned and walked through the gate.

Marielle turned to look back, the stubborn man was making his way to her house. He didn't spare them a second glance as he walked through the doorway. She walked alongside Vilkas and looked up to the Nord.

"Oh, Vilkas. Before I forget to mention it. We'll need to come back here after we deal with the witches. There's another person that's in our group and he's elected to wait for us here" she explained, slightly apprehensive but Vilkas just gave a small grunt in acknowledgement and thankfully he didn't make a fuss about it.

* * *

Reaching Glenmoril Coven took some time as they had to go through the woods, the group did have to contend with the local wildlife and had fought off some bears, wolves and one spriggan. But thankfully, they made it to their destination without any life threatening injuries and the ones they did get were easily treated by a few healing potions. At the moment, they found themselves walking up a rather steep hillside and soon were hiking alongside the mountain. Marielle could tell they were near as they came upon some rather disturbing shrines, Marielle grimaced in disgust as she spotted a decapitated goats head stuck onto a spike and by the smell of it, it had been there just long enough for decomposition to settle in.

She waved a hand in front of her face in an effort to dissipate the odor and to chase away some of the flies that were swarming the area. Vilkas cleared his throat to get her attention, she looked towards him and saw him glance at Teldryn at the corner of his eye and motioned for her to speak, Marielle nodded.

"Teldryn. You and Meeko stay out here and wait for us" She ordered.

"You're going on without us? Fine, Suit yourself. We'll just stay out here. In the cold." Teldryn responded melodramatically, Marielle let out an amused snort as Meeko let out a whine.

"Don't worry. I won't be long" she cooed in a gentle voice as she stroked his head affectionately.

The trio walked into the cave and cautiously ventured in further, their senses on high as the light from the entrance dimmed significantly the deeper they went, Marielle cast Magelight onto the ground.

"You sure that's a good idea, sister?" Farkas asked, eyeing the tiny ball of light with apprehension.

"Don't worry, the spell stays in place. Also, the two witches that I killed were more around the center area of the cave. The others are probably somewhere deeper in" she responded quietly.

They found themselves inside a large open space that, thankfully, had fires going that were helping in lighting the area. Marielle glanced briefly at the now decomposing corpse of one of the witches still on the ground where she had slain her, the other dead witch in the part of the cave in front of her was likely still there as well. She looked to the side and spotted an opening and motioned for the brothers to follow her.

As they approached the entrance, she turned to the twins.

"We should be quiet, let's try to take her off guard" she gave the two a meaningful look, the brothers nodded.

She walked passed the opening and slowly made her way down the path, peeking around the corners to make sure there were no rune spells or any other traps. Seeing nothing, they went forward and soon came to a halt as they had reached the end. They could hear the hagraven like creature walk around, mumbling incoherently to herself as the talons on her feet scratched at the ground.

Marielle could feel her heart beating in her chest rapidly and gripped her sword tightly, grateful that she had put a diminishing magicka enchantment on it. She slowly crouched down and gestured for the brothers to do the same before gingerly stepping forward, trying as best as she could to not make any noise. At that moment, Marielle wished that she had learned the muffle spell.

She looked up, across the large spikes that were embedded into the ground she saw the witch picking at the meat of some unfortunate animal that had wandered into its lair.

In her brief distraction, Marielle had failed to notice the small pile of bones near her, she stopped dead in her tracks as a sound just audible enough for the witch to pause from her meal was heard as her foot disturbed the pile. The witch lifted her head to look around, trying to find the source of the noise. Luckily, Marielle and the twins were close enough to the wall and in the shade for the witch not to notice them; not seeing anything, the witch had gone back to eating.

Marielle let out a shaky breath that she didn't realize that she was holding and slowly continued on, she put herself closer to the pillar like rock formation near the center of the room. She looked around briefly and saw that the witch was still preoccupied with her food, she turned to the brothers and motioned for them to follow.

She winced slightly as she could hear the slight rustling of their armor, she put up a finger to her lips as she signaled for them to be quieter, they saw her motion to them and slowed down significantly.

She turned back and froze in place as the witch was now turned to her and walking towards her while glaring at her with a sneer, the blood and meat of the animal was all over her face and in her teeth.

"The beasts return" The witch rasped out as she took a swipe at her with her talon like nails, luckily Marielle was able to dodge the attack at the last minute. She moved back closer to Farkas and Vilkas, who were now standing in defensive positions. Vilkas had almost immediately grabbed her by the arm and pulled her behind him.

As soon as she was in the clear, Farkas then charged as he brought up his greatsword over his head, ready to cut the witch down. As he drew nearer, he did not expect to be thrown to the side by a spell, he hit the wall of the cave with a loud cry. Wasting no time, the witch sent out a fireball spell towards Marielle and Vilkas.

The dark haired Nord quickly turned to her and hooked his arm around her before leaping out of the line of fire. Both landed to the side, Vilkas used his body to shield the tiny Breton from most of the heat and debris from the impact of the spell before they got up as quickly as they could.

The witch had thrown another fireball towards them and Marielle quickly brought up a Greater Ward spell in front of both her and Vilkas, she stumbled back slightly as the ward disappeared almost as soon as the attack had collided with it.

 _WULD_!

The partial shout had sent her forward and cloe enough to the witch tha when she drew out her weapon, she had managed to get in a deep cut on the witch's upper arm. At feeling the magicka being drained from her, the witch violently lashed out, she gripped and dug her nails deeply into Marielle's shoulder before pulling away, creating some rather painful gashes.

Marielle gasped in pain and shock before slashing at her opponent in retaliation, she had somehow managed to land in some hits and the enchantment had drained some more of the witch's magicka. She then kicked forward into the hag's stomach, sending her flying backwards. Marielle gritted her teeth as she grasped onto her shoulder and used a healing spell to close her wounds.

In her distraction Marielle failed to notice the witch had gotten up and was stalking over to her with a snarl as she raised her hands up, readying herself to claw at the girl once more, but let out a shriek of pain and surprise as Vilkas quickly appeared at her side, he used the pommel of his weapon to strike her in the face before slashing the blade across her chest, splitting the flesh open. Vilkas watched briefly in digust as the body fell to the ground before turning his attention to the tiny Breton.

"Marielle. Are you alright?" he asked as he walked up to her and inspected her shoulder.

"Yes. I'm fine." Marielle nodded before she whipped her head to the side to look at the area near the cave wall.

"What about Farkas?" she asked, her eyes now searching for the warrior, she relaxed as she spotted him getting up from the ground.

"Don't worry, sister. I'm okay" he tried to reassure her as he let out a small grunt while he staggered towards them, Marielle marched forwards to meet him halfway and cast a Heal Other spell as soon as he was within reach.

"Thanks" Farkas let out an appreciative sigh, Marielle smiled before turning to the dead witch.

She really didn't like this part.

"Alright. Let's get this over with" she grimaced.

The trio approached the body, Marielle took her weapon in hand and lifted her sword before bringing it down and hacked away at the neck, it took a few swings to completely sever it from the corpse. She took the head in her hands and used her magicka to freeze the it as Vilkas brought out a sack, he gave her a look.

"To preserve the head" she explained as she placed it into the sack before taking out a cloth to clean the gore from her hands.

There should be two more witches left. She thought to herself as she stepped into the main cavern, she recalled that there was what looked to be an upper level with a pathway, she took a few steps forwards before stopping, suddenly feeling as she though she was being watched.

Marielle had heard the loud booming sound before she felt the heat hit the ground near her and was sent flying to the side with a surprised cry. She hit the floor of the cave hard, pain shooting through her, there was a low ringing sound in her ears. She gritted her teeth as she tried to get up as quickly as she could, she reached into her pouch and took out a healing potion, she popped the cork and quickly downed the liquid. The ringing subsided as the potion went to work and mended any and all minor injuries she sustained, Marielle could hear the loud battle cries of the brothers.

She looked to see the twins running to the witch that had ambushed her and kept watching as she moved to grip her sword until she heard a faint rasping sound that was coming from her side before she was knocked to the ground once again as a force collided with her.

Luckily, she was able to turn fully to her attacker as she was falling and instinctively brought her hands up to grasp at the wrists of the last witch as she saw talon like nails try to claw at her face. Surprisingly, the hags were quite strong physically.

"Your blood is ours companion!" The last witch snarled at her.

Marielle used all her upper body strength to pull the witch's hands to the side before ramming her forehead into the lower part of the hags face. She could hear the crunch-like sound of her nose breaking before feeling the warm blood drip onto her face as the witch shrieked. Marielle then brought her legs up and kicked as hard as she could, the witch was sent flying back onto the ground.

Before the witch could compose herself, Marielle quickly got up and pulled out her weapon. She sprinted towards her fallen opponent as she was attempting to get back up and pushed the blade into her throat. The witch let out a wet gurgling sound just as Marielle yanked the sword to the side, cutting her throat open. She hit the ground, blood quickly pooling around the body.

Marielle was breathing heavily as she turned to check on the brothers and saw them working on separating the other hag's head from the body. She looked back to the dead witch, briefly contemplating what to do before deciding to take her head as well, just in case.

As soon as the deed was done, Marielle placed the now frozen head into the sack. Vilkas and Farkas approached with the other head in hand, she took and froze it before placing it with the other two, she tied the sack closed and hurled it over her shoulder.

"Are you both alright? No injuries?" she asked, looking over them both.

"No injuries, Harbinger" Vilkas responded.

"That's good." She nodded. "Let's get out of here"

The trio walked to the entrance and out into the open, Marielle narrowed her eyes and blinked a few times as they got used to the light of the sun. She paused briefly when she saw the tall masked man standing in front of her.

"Look who decided to show up after all" Teldryn pointed at the taller man beside him.

Miraak paid no attention to the Dunmer but rather was staring at her, Marielle opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong.

"You're injured" he stated, cutting her off.

He motioned to her shoulder, she looked down to see the mess the witch had made in her attack and put her hand over it, shaking her head.

"I'm fine. I've already healed it" she responded, giving him a questioning look.

Was he really concerned for her?

"Good. We won't need to stop for a healer" he answered.

 _Of_ _Course_. Marielle almost rolled her eyes.

The sound of someone clearing their throat grabbed her attention, she glanced back to the twins.

"Oh! This is Miraak. The other member of our little group" Marielle introduced her fellow Dragonborn.

"Miraak. These two are Farkas and Vilkas" She pointed to the respective brother.

The two dark haired Nords nodded in his direction, Miraak didn't bother a response and instead ignored them all together as he turned to walk back towards the main road while he motioned for the others to follow him.

"Let us be off then"

Marielle frowned but followed closely behind him, she heard Vilkas let out an offended huff.

* * *

They had walked down the road for sometime, along the way they had managed to catch some rabbits that had wandered close to the road for their dinner later on. Miraak had wondered how far they had traveled as he glanced upward and saw that the sun was now just getting ready to set; taking the time to appreciate the bright colors of the sky, he would not take such sights for granted again. He suddenly heard the girl clear her throat to get everyone's attention, he looked to her.

"I think it would be a good idea to stop for the night" she announced as she stopped to survey the land for a suitable clearing.

Miraak found himself looking to her shoulder, the blood had mostly dried to a brownish red color on the fabric. He begrudgingly admired her skills in restoration magic; other than the blood he saw no evidence that she had sustained an injury, her skin looked flawless. Miraak thought to his near fatal wound, though it did take awhile for him to recover and she did manage to nearly remove all traces of it save for some very faint scarring.

Movement snapped him out of his thoughts, it seemed that the girl had chosen a place she thought acceptable. she and the others moved in and were now setting up camp as quickly as they could. He saw the dark elf working on a campfire as the two Nords were helping her set up near some trees.

"You going to just stand there?" He heard one of the young Nord brothers ask a little too sarcastically for his liking, Miraak narrowed his eyes and sneered before turning to take out his sleeping roll.

They had put a canopy tent and were now placing their own sleeping rolls underneath it. Miraak had placed his more near to the fire pit than to the others. He saw the Breton move to take out the rabbits to prepare them but the leaner of the brothers grab her hand.

"Let me take care of that, you go and wash up" he said, motioning to her shoulder.

She looked down to her outfit for a moment before nodding.

"Alright. Thank you, Vilkas" she responded, she opened her bag to take out a towel and what looked to be a needle and thread before leaving to find the nearest body of water with the dog following closely behind her.

While she was busy bathing and cleaning her clothing, the brother had prepared a stew. Miraak had taken a bowl with a small piece of somewhat stale bread, he sat a ways from the other males, turning his back to them and ate his food in silence until he heard a loud laugh, he wiped his mouth and brought down his mask before looking back to the others.

"When she first came to us I was instructed to test her. She threw an ice spell at me" the boy let out a chuckle.

"Guess she forgot us Nords are resistant to the cold and luckily for me she missed anyway. The Companions never took in mages before but our previous harbinger made an exception"

At that Miraak let out a derisive snort, the three males looked to him.

"Of course the Companions took mages into their ranks, do you think your precious Ysgramor could have won against the elves otherwise?" he stated in a condescending tone, remembering vividly that Ahzidal lended his magic and enchantments to Ysgramor's army.

The brothers scowled at him.

"What would you know?" the smaller of the two asked, his voice held a hostile tone.

"A great deal more than you" Miraak responded.

The atmosphere had turned tense as the two brothers stared at him and Miraak stared back, they paid no attention to the dark elf as he moved away from the others almost nervously.

"Smells good" he heard a soft almost breathy voice that was off to the side and he broke eye contact with the brothers.

The Breton girl had arrived just in time to interrupt what would've been a heated confrontation between the three of them. He noted that her hair was still somewhat damp as strands were clinging to her neck and face. The three men became less tense as the smaller of the two boys gave her a smile.

"Here. I saved you some" He held out a bowl to her which she gratefully accepted before sitting down beside him.

Miraak went back to ignoring them as he sat in his thoughts, as soon as they would arrive in Winterhold he would discreetly look through the books for any useful information about his problem. They must have heard of something like this at least once, he hoped.

A laugh got his attention as he looked towards the others and saw the girl giving the smaller brother a rather bright smile. He listened in for awhile, the Nord brothers were sharing stories of Jorrvaskr and their travels across Skyrim while the girl and the elf were talking about their time in Solstheim while leaving out his involvement.

"So, sister. How's your skill in weapons coming along?" The larger brother asked, Farkas if he recalled correctly.

"Better now. Athis' training really helped and Teldryn has been giving me some tips" she responded as she finished her meal.

"Ever think about trying two-handed weapons?"

"I've tried and I topple over every time" she responded with a shrug.

"Your stance is probably wrong. Come." the smaller Nord waved her over, he stood up and grabbed ahold of his weapon. The girl hesitantly got up and approached him, she took the weapon as he held it out for her, she stumbled forward when he let go. He caught her just as she was about to fall to her knees, grabbing the greatsword and moving to stand behind her.

"Careful now. Here, stand like this"

Miraak frowned behind his mask, the boy moved her leg to the side to give her more balance and steadied her by grabbing her waist. The girl then attempted to lift the heavy weapon, her arms wobbled as she struggled, trying a few times before finally giving up.

"Sorry. Not strong enough" her face went a rosy color as her eyes looked to the side.

"It's not for everyone" he responded with a gentle touch on her arm.

Miraak clenched his hands as he cleared his throat to grab her attention.

"Dragonborn. Perhaps we should turn in for the night and get a head start in the morning"

The girl looked to him with an almost startled look as she stepped away from the boy, who at the moment was giving him a seething stare.

"Yes! You're right. We should" she agreed, moving away from the boy and to her sleeping roll. The others followed suit, he heard her mutter good night as she settled in.

Miraak slipped into his own bedding and made himself as comfortable as he possibly could, which wasn't much as he still wasn't used to sleeping on the ground. He laid down, facing the starry sky and just as he was about to close his eyes to let slumber take hold of him, he heard the boy's voice faintly.

"Bastard."

* * *

Marielle shivered as she entered the tomb, the cold wind ceased as she conjured a flame in her hand to warm herself. It took a few minutes before she was warm enough to take off the fur cloak she had brought with her and handed it over to Teldryn.

"Harbinger" She heard Vilkas and nodded to him.

"Sorry guys. You'll have to wait here again" she apologized before she and the brothers walked further into the tomb, Meeko followed.

"No. Go back" Marielle pointed to the entrance while speaking with a firm tone. The dog lowered his head and nuzzled against her hand as he gave a low whine.

"Alright then. Come one" she sighed as she relented.

Marielle was glad that more frost spiders had decided not to make the place their new home as she pulled free her foot from left over spider silk. She gave a sympathetic look at poor Farkas, the big Nord kept looking around whenever he heard a noise or when he thought he heard one.

They quickly found themselves in the main burial chamber, the fire in the brazier was still burning bright.

"Who wants to go first?" she asked, turning to the brothers.

Vilkas and Farkas looked to each other briefly before Farkas nodded and stepped forward.

"I'll go first"

Marielle nodded and handed him the sack, he took out one of the frozen heads and gave out a nervous sigh before throwing it into the flames. A bright flash emitted from the brazier as the flesh burned.

Farkas let out a pained grunt as he fell to his hands and knees, his body shook and twitched as a phantom wolf clawed its way out from the large Nords exposed back. Marielle and Vilkas watched for a moment before taking out their weapons. The creature had fully separated itself from Farkas and shook its head as it steadied itself before looking to them, it let out a growl as it bared its teeth.

Wasting no time, Vilkas charged with a loud battle cry with Meeko following right behind him. As they were distracting the specter, Marielle stayed back and waited for an opportunity to strike. Meeko bit into one of the back legs and shook violently as Vilkas hacked into its side and head, backing off as it snapped at him.

Marielle took advantage as it paid attention to the others and sent flames out to its face as she slashed at it, striking it in the eyes. The creature shook its head and yelped; noticing an opening, Vilkas was able to deal it a fatal blow to the neck. It disappeared in a cloud like wisp as Farkas got up and looked around.

"What happened?"

"Are you okay, brother? Did it work?" Vilkas asked, approaching hesitantly.

"It's...like relaxing in a warm mug of spiced mead" Farkas responded with a smile.

Vilkas chuckled, patting his brother on the shoulder.

"I'm losing aches I didn't even know I had"

"Vilkas. Are you ready?" Marielle asked, grabbing his attention and holding out the sack.

The Nord looked down at her, nodding as he took the bag. He grabbed the other head as Marielle cast Healing Hands on Farkas. The effect was almost immediate as Vilkas threw the head into the flames, the wolf tore out of Vilkas' body quite violently as he let out a cry. The wolf instantly snapped at them, attempting to kill anyone it noted that the wolf spirit was more wild than Farkas' had been.

Marielle quickly got out of the way of its jaws as it decided to put its attention on her, she slashed at its face before running towards Farkas. The large Nord used the pommel of his sword to hit the wolf as it came near them, stunning it beore bringing the weapon down and wounding it. The wolf snarled and became more erratic; while Farkas and Meeko were busy distracting the wolf, Marielle quickly went to its side and stabbed the phantom before dragging the weapon along the length of its body.

As it turned to attempt to bite her, Farkas hacked at its head and neck. He continued to do so until it too disappeared, Marielle breathed heavily as she took out a stamina potion and drank it.

She walked over to Vilkas, who was stretching and rolling his shoulders.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Vilkas took in a large breath.

"Yes, I can breathe more deeply now... I can't smell your heart beating the way I used to." he looked to her, Marielle looked to the side shyly.

But my mind is...clear. Thank you, Marielle." he smiled as he gently placed his hand to her shoulder. Marielle then placed her smaller hand over his, her eyes making contact with his. They stared at one another for a moment until she heard Farkas let out an awkward cough, she let go.

"Well. We should get going" Marielle gave a timid smile before walking back to the entrance.

She greeted Teldryn and Miraak when they reached the front chamber. The dark elf greeted her back as the other Dragonborn stood near the statue of Ysgramor with his arms crossed over his chest.

"We're done here." she announced.

"Good" was the only response that he gave before walking out of the tomb. Marielle shrugged it off, not wanting his attitude to ruin the light hearted feeling from helping the brothers.

She put on her fur lined cloak before stepping out into the open, the cold wind hit her as she shuddered. Despite the cold, she looked to the brothers and pulled them into a tight embrace, which they more than happy to reciprocate.

"Don't forget to come by Jorrvaskr more often, sister." Farkas mumbled.

"I will" she responded, letting them go.

And with that, the brothers headed back to Whiterun. Marielle watched them for a moment then turned to her companions, motioning them to follow her.

"Come on. The college isn't far off now"

* * *

Author's note: Sorry it took so long to get out the new chapter. Hope you liked it. Was debating whether or not to let Miraak save her from the witch but thought it would've been too cliche. Thank you all for liking and a special thank you to Quintus Sertorius for reviewing.


	8. Books

_Why couldn't the college have been in someplace warmer?_

Marielle thought as she shivered and tightly pulled her cloak around herself. As she did this, a rather harsh wind went by. She raised one of her arms to shield her face from the biting cold, as she did this her eyes began to water and blur her vision. She stepped into an icy patch on the ground and let out a little gasp as she fell forward, putting her hands out to brace herself and winced when her hands were buried deep into the snow.

"You alright?" she heard Teldryn ask, feeling a pair of hands grab her by her shoulders to help her up. She nodded as she looked around; the wind and snow were now coming down hard, it seemed to be the beginning of a blizzard.

"We'll need to find shelter" The Dunmer sellsword announced, his voice almost shouting in order to be heard. Marielle shook her head and looked up into the sky; she took in a deep breath and as she did this she could feel the power form inside her chest and in her throat.

 _LOK VAH KOOR!_

She could see a rippling effect swirl around her and heard a loud thundering crack just before the snow and winds died down. She turned to Teldryn who was unfortunately close to her when she shouted, his hands were over his ears as he let out an annoyed sound.

"Sorry" she apologized with a sheepish smile. The clouds had dissipated and Marielle could see that the sun was now very close to setting, she frowned.

"We'll need to find some place to rest. I don't think walking around here at night is a good idea"

There was a brief pause while she looked at the horizon, hoping to spot a nearby cave, building or any place to shelter them, then suddenly she heard a quiet sigh.

"Dragonborn. The ruins of Saarthal are not far from here" Miraak suggested almost hesitantly, motioning in the direction of the ancient city.

Relieved, she nodded and waved Meeko to come closer to her, the shivering dog complied as Marielle attempted to use a flame to create warmth for herself and the dog.

"Let's go then" She announced, walking alongside Miraak.

Marielle sent a quick thanks to the divines as they reached the ruins, though they did have to use a bit of strength to push open the doors seeing as ice formed along the entrance. She walked onto the wooden platform and sat down, she then quickly closed her eyes as Meeko approached and shook his body to get rid of the melted snow from her fur. She let out a chuckle as she wiped the water droplets from her face before turning to check on her companions.

Teldryn was currently leaning against the stone wall as he took off his chitin helmet and wiped off the melted snow. She looked to Miraak and saw that his shoulders were tense as he paced back and forth, his frustration was evident. She watched him for a moment before deciding to let him be and surveyed the chamber, the platforms and makeshift wooden bridges for the excavation were still in place. She briefly wondered if some of the members of the college had planned on further study deeper into the ruins.

With that thought she paused.

Marielle was about the hit herself for forgetting that there was another word wall within Saarthal and stood up abruptly. Her sudden movement had caught Miraak's attention, he had stopped his pacing and was currently looking in Marielle's direction, though she couldn't see his face she could guess that he was giving her an inquisitive look.

"I just remembered that there's a word wall in here. It almost escaped my mind" Marielle's tone was enthusiastic as she gave a little smile.

"Take me there." Miraak demanded, his voice was sharp and impatient.

Marielle almost winced at the tone of his voice, but stopped herself from outwardly giving a reaction and settled on giving him an exasperated look. She glanced around the room and saw that the gate that lead directly to the room with the word wall was closed, Marielle gave a slight frown before telling Meeko to stay put. After helping her dog settle in she turned to walk down the wooden pathway and motioned for the two men to follow her.

The group made their way through the first few chambers of the ruins, as she walked on both the newly made pathways and Saarthal's undamaged stone bridges, she couldn't help but wonder what the ancient settlement must have been like in its prime.

"Have you ever been here, Miraak?" she suddenly found herself asking the much older man.

He looked to her for a moment before answering.

"Very briefly when I was young, long before it was destroyed"

"What was it like?" she inquired further, her curiosity piqued.

"The city was large despite the remnant you now see. It almost reached to where Winterhold was later built. Some of the living quarters were down here, mainly for the priests and the leaders but the lower parts were reserved for burial." he started. Marielle's eyes continued to stay on him, silently urging him to continue.

"This was before the elves attacked, of course. Though it was rebuilt, I was told that the city never did return to its original splendor" Marielle nodded as they went through the entrance where she had discovered the strange ancient amulet during the college's expedition.

"Any of this familiar?" she asked, gesturing around the room.

"No, This was likely built after the sacking." he paused, glancing around to take in the new sights before setting his gaze back to the previously hidden corridor.

"It seems many of the pathways that I remember have collapsed whether this was during the attack or from the test of time I do not know." Miraak responded as he walked through the debris, Teldryn and Marielle following closely behind him.

After some time walking through the maze like ruins, the group had finally made it to the circular burial chamber. Looking back on it, Marielle now realized the strange layout of the lower chambers, along with the puzzles and traps were an attempt to deter anyone venturing in deeper into the ancient city and finding the orb that she and Tolfdir had discovered. She stared briefly at the empty space where it had once been, the strange object was likely at the college this very moment and with that thought Marielle couldn't help but feel somewhat unnerved.

* * *

Miraak could feel his heart beat slightly faster in anticipation as they entered a large chamber with a throne and a rather strange looking platform near the doorway to the word wall. Suddenly; he recalled when he was given the news that Saarthal had fallen, destroyed by the snow elves. He was not given much detail on why they had been attacked, only that Ysgramor and his sons went back to Atmora for reinforcements. During his time in Aprocrypha, he had found a book written by a dark elf and only then did the attack finally make sense, he turned to the Breton.

"So. There was something here, wasn't there?"

He got his answer as he watched her face morph from a neutral expression to a surprised one. Amusement set in as her mouth began to open and close as she tried to find something to say back to him.

"You didn't think I spent all that time in Apocrypha just sitting there did you?" He asked, his mirth grew as her face went sheepish and reddened.

"No...no, I suppose not" Her soft voice responded.

Miraak frowned behind his mask as he heard a loud, pained yell from the sellsword, both quickly looked to where the dark elf stood and saw a draugr standing behind him with a rusted sword piercing the back of the elf's shoulder.

"Dir volaan!" the raspy voice of a draugr called out.

The dark elf kicked the undead creature away from him before stumbling away with his hand clutched firmly to his shoulder, the draugr steadied itself and stalked towards the injured elf. Before it could reach him, an ice spike suddenly flew by and embedded itself into the creatures back, though it did little to slow it down.

Miraak drew his weapon and called out.

"It is resistant to frost magic"

The girl gave him a nod and turned his sight back to the draugr, she conjured flames in her palm and threw a fire bolt at it. Once the flames hit it in its face; the creature stumbled back and snarled, Miraak took a step forward while it was distracted and raised his arm.

He let out a shocked gasp as a burning pain bloomed on his left side, he looked back to see a second draugr, holding a bow. It had managed to sneak behind and shoot him; he gazed down to see the arrow and quickly yanked it out, he grimaced at the pain as he put his hand on his side and could feel the fabric of his robes become wet with his blood.

He could hear the sounds of metal clashing against metal behind him as he got a good look at his opponent. The draugr in front of him was wearing a horned helmet, letting him know that this one was much stronger than the previous undead that he had faced. The creature grabbed ahold of another arrow as Miraak took a breath, readying himself to use a shout until he heard the other draugr use its thu'um.

 _FUS RO DAH!_

He heard a short, alarmed cry and out of the corner of his eye; he saw the small, lithe figure of the Dragonborn hit the ground and roll before stopping near one of the pillars that stood at the base of the platform. He made a move to go near her until an arrow had flown by his head, barely missing him.

"Aav dilon!" It yelled.

Miraak then sprinted forward while ignoring the pain and slammed into the draugr, sending it flying into the nearby wall. It attempted to get back up, Miraak walked up to it and kicked it in the side as hard as he could. The draugr's body had managed to turn over, he brought up the sword and plunged it into its abdomen. Miraak frowned when it did not die immediately, he raised his arm to once again stab it until the creature looked up at him and shouted.

 _FO KRAH DIIN_!

Though the shout did not harm him entirely, thanks to his natural frost resistance. However, it did create a thin coat of ice around him and managed to slow down his movement. He stumbled backwards from the force of the shout and while he was distracted the draugr hauled itself to its feet and took out a war axe. It stepped forward and took a swing at him; luckily for him, Miraak had recovered from the previous attack just enough to get out of the way. The blade had missed him by an inch, he was able to put some distance between them before doubling over as another surge of pain shot through him from his wound.

He fell to his knees with a groan as he heard quick footsteps approaching him, he looked up to see the draugr ready to bring its blade down. He quickly brought up his sword and was able to block the attack just in time, the two pushed at each other for a minute until Miraak waivered, he sneered as he could feel the draugr push down. He braced himself and with a sudden burst of strength he shoved the creature back.

As the draugr tried to steady itself, Miraak took advantage of its distraction and lunged forward. The sword went through its chest once more, this time hitting where its heart would be located. He then brought the blade across, creating a large gash as the creature's glowing blue eyes dimmed before it fell to the ground.

Miraak stood there breathing heavily for a moment, only turning to look where he heard the death rattle of the second draugr. The Dragonborn was stumbling to the sellsword; he watched as she sent out a healing spell to the rather battered looking Dunmer and then used one on herself before sitting down to catch her breath, he glanced to the other undead and noticed it wore the same armor as the one he had fought.

He suddenly felt a cold, wet sensation on his side followed by an aching and then remembered his wound, he placed his hand over it and approached the young woman.

"Give me a healing potion" he demanded.

She looked up at him briefly, her eyes then went down to see his hand clutching his side; she then rummaged through her bag briefly. She withdrew her hand and held out a blue colored bottle for him.

"It seems I don't have one on me at the moment but I do have magicka potions" she explained.

Miraak tensed and did not move to take it, he watched as she tilted her head slightly, confusion coloring her face.

"What's the matter? Aren't you going to take it?" she asked.

He did not answer her.

"Mir-"

"Heal me" he interrupted.

She furrowed her brows and stared at him, Miraak watched as she glanced at his side then at the magicka potion. He cursed internally when he could see that she was beginning to realize what was wrong and she withdrew slightly from him.

"You can't use your magicka" she stated.

Miraak let out a heavy sigh.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

He became surprised when she gave him a disappointed look and felt a pang of regret but immediately quelled it.

"You didn't need to know" his voice was firm.

She looked as if she were going to protest but stopped herself and instead popped open the bottle and quickly drank the liquid. He then heard the familiar chiming sound of a restoration spell and felt a warm, soothing sensation wash over him as the aching subsided. Miraak stood up straight in relief as the Dragonborn helped up the dark elf, he then readied himself for another dispute when she began walking towards him until she strode past him and opened the door to the next chamber. He watched her with slight perplexment as she almost stormed through the doorway, he noted that she had not bothered to look back at him.

He followed her into the room and could hear the familiar chanting coming from the wall, hearing the ancient tongue had managed to alleviated some of his unsettlement as he approached it. The word of power had instantly flowed to him, he stepped back and turned to see her waiting at another doorway. As soon as she noticed that he was finished; she immediately went through, Miraak almost hesistated to follow her for a moment.

They didn't say anything to one another as they settled down to rest, it didn't take long for the dark elf to slip into a deep slumber and leaving the two Dragonborn sitting in an awkward silence.

"You should have said something"

Miraak looked to her, a frown was etched onto her face.

"I told you it wasn't your concern" he replied, looking away from her.

He heard her sigh.

"Of course, it is. You can't access your magicka" she paused.

"We'll have to extend our stay at the college to figure out what's wrong with you"

At this; Miraak quickly set his gaze on her, she noticed and startled.

"And who's fault is that?" his tone was icy. " Was it not you who destroyed my work on the All-Maker Stones? Without your meddling I would have been here in full"

After he had spoken, she scowled at him.

"How dare you blame this all on me. I saved you even after all that you've done, If you hadn't sent your cultists after me in the first place I would have helped you" she hissed, keeping her voice low as not to wake the Dunmer.

Miraak frowned.

" I never sent cultists after you" he responded in confusion. He had no idea what she was going on about.

"Yes, you did. I saw the note" she replied as she crossed her arms.

"Dragonborn. I did not know of you until you walked into Apocrypha" he started " I assure you that I did nothing of the sort"

She gave him a disbelieving look.

"Well. Somebody sent them"

"Those overseeing the others wouldn't have accepted orders from anyone but me, no one outside of Apocrypha could have done it..." Miraak trailed off.

No one outside of Apocrypha.

He suddenly found himself thinking back to their fight at the summit, just before he lost consciousness he had heard Mora's loud, enraged voice echo throughout the realm.

 _Did you think to escape me, Miraak? you can hide_ _ **nothing**_ _from me!_

The Daedric prince had known all along about his plans and instead of just killing him outright, he had decieved her into coming to Solstheim and setting them both up. Had Mora changed his mind about killing him or was this all planned to get two Dragonborn instead of one?

"Mora" he muttered.

He gave his attention to the female Dragonborn and watched her as she began to piece together what he had already concluded. Her confused look slowly changed into one of devastation, her eyes looking around at everything but him until she finally cast her gaze to him with a lost expression. At this moment, Miraak had taken notice of how young she truly was with her still round face and slightly larger eyes, she couldn't have been older than twenty.

He watched her stare at him with an almost pleading look but all he could do at the moment was sit still, unsure of what to do as her eyes glistened with tears and her breathing quickened. After a moment, she turned to her bed roll and slowly crawled into it. Miraak continued to sit there, listening to her soft whimpers and sniffling until it ceased altogether. He sat there for awhile before sighing and laying down, he closed his eyes and at last welcomed a deep sleep.

* * *

The journey to the college had been silent save for the occasional remark about the cold from the sellsword, the only distraction had been a lone ice wraith which the Dragonborn and the Dark elf had taken care of easily enough.

At the present; Miraak was studying the college and its courtyard, eagerly taking in the new sights as he waited for the Dragonborn to finish her business with one of the residents.

"Miraak. This is Mirabelle Ervine, she'll be helping you with your...problem" she introduced an older Breton woman as they approached him.

Miraak bristled, not happy that she had discussed his handicap with another.

"You-" she started until she held up her hand, making him pause.

"I didn't give any details." she started in a soft voice. "I'll leave it up to you to explain it"

And with that, she turned from him and walked away as Miraak stared after her. Only when he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat did he turn his attention to the other Breton, who had a peculiar smile.

"Now. What can I help you with?"

* * *

 _Stubborn Man._

Marielle thought as she entered the Hall of Attainment and took in a large breath before slowly exhaling. The previous nights events still fresh in her mind, she had wondered briefly if Miraak was lying to her but almost immediately dismissed the idea. Though she couldn't see his face, the dismayed tone in his voice told her that his reaction was genuine.

Marielle clenched her fists and frowned, she was tricked by Hermaeus Mora into servitude along with Miraak. She could feel a lump in her throat as she tried to calm herself until she felt something wet and cold touch her hand. She look down to see Meeko trying to push his head into the palm of her hand, she pushed her distress aside and smiled slightly at the dog as she scratched his behind the ear.

"You're back!" Marielle heared an ethusiastic voice call out.

"Brelyna" she greeted as she embraced the Dunmer woman.

"So, will you be staying for good this time?" she questioned with a smile.

"No, I'm afraid not. Though, I will be here for the time being" Marielle responded.

""So, where did you go? Any interesting adventures?" Brelyna inquired.

Marielle smiled and told her of the Companions, sailing to Solstheim and traveling across the island with Teldryn, who Brelyna expressed interest in meeting. Though, she left out certain details.

"Ah! So, you are back" Marielle turned to look and saw the Archmage standing in her doorway, she gave a quick greeting before the older Dunmer male spoke again.

"Might I have a moment of your time?" She nodded as Brelyna stood up.

"We'll catch up later" she whispered and left.

"Archmage. Is there something I can do for you?" Marielle asked, giving him a friendly smile.

"Funny you should phrase it that way as there is something you can help with" he paused before continuing "as you may have guessed, we brought the orb into the college and since you were there when it was discovered, Tolfdir has requested that you help in researching its origins. And if I were you, I would speak to Urag about aquiring books."

"I...alright then" Marielle reluctantly agreed.

"Good. I look forward in seeing what you find" Savos replied as he walked out of the hall. Marielle waited for moment before letting out a sigh and getting up.

"Come on" she muttered to the dog, patting her thigh to call the animal to her side. Meeko complied as they both stepped out of the doorway and into the courtyard. Marielle quickly entered the Hall of Elements and through the entrance to the Arcanaeum, as soon as she reached the top step she saw the surly orc reading at his desk and cautiously approached.

"Hmm. So it's true. Welcome back." Urag grumbled as he lifted torn his gaze from the book to look at her and asked "Do you require assistance?"

"I've been told to ask you about some books" she replied.

"I know what you want. It's about that orb isn't it?" he didn't wait for her to respond " Well, you don't even need to ask. No, I don't have anything for you. Not anymore, anyway"

"Why don't you have anything?" she asked with a slight frown.

"Orthorn. He stole a number of books when he ran off to Fellglow Keep to join those summoners. Some kind of peace offering. I think one of those volumes had some information you might need. If you want them, you'll have to go get them" Urag explained before returning to reading his book.

Marielle gave a little, exasperated sigh.

 _Nothing can ever be easy, can it?_ She thought as she turned around to walk out of the library, only to stop in her tracks when she spotted the college's Thalmor guest waiting for her near the entrance.

"You there. I have questions for you...you were in Saarthal, yes?" Ancano inquired, giving her a haughty look as she gave a slow nod.

"It's been brought to my attention that you and Tolfdir discovered something and was brought back here, locked away for further study" Marielle shifted slightly under his scrutiny.

"Maybe..." she trailed off, not wanting to give details.

"I know full well that you have. Please, do not insult my intelligence" He sneered at her. "You have been instructed to aid in research, yes? I expect a report."

Marielle watched as the tall elf stalked off to Mara knows where, she decided to let Tolfdir know of the encounter as soon as she got back from retrieving the stolen books. She stepped through the door and into the courtyard and, thankfully, spotted Teldryn and waved him over.

"Don't get too comfortable, we'll be leaving right away" she announced as she put on her cloak.

"Really? But we just got here" Marielle just gave him an apologetic smile and a shrug. She walked Meeko over to the Hall of Attainment and lead him in, she settled the dog in and asked Brelyna to watch over him while she was out.

Now off to get the books.

* * *

"Oh! Well. If you're sure..."

Marielle let out a slow breath as she watched the rather pitiful Altmer fidget nervously under her stare.

"I'm sure. Now go, we've cleared the way back there" she reassured him, pointing to the hall way she had come from.

"I'll just be on my way then. Please do be careful and thank you" Orthorn smiled gratefully before turning and running towards the exit. She watched him briefly; then walked over to Teldryn, who was currently sheathing his weapon.

"Great. Ruins full of summoners. Remind me again on why I follow you"

Marielle giggled.

"You were bored on Solstheim and I'm paying you...a lot" Her smile grew when Teldryn paused before giving a nod.

"Sounds about right...So, any idea where to go from here?" Marielle looked around the room, only stopping when she heard very faint noises from behind a door, she looked to Teldryn and motioned for him to follow. They cautiously walked until they could clearly hear a male's voice instructing others, which was followed by an explosion.

"Hmm. Fire mages?" Teldryn guessed.

"Most likely." Marielle started "Okay. First summon an atronach then charge. I want to get this over as quickly as possible"

Teldryn nodded as she held up three fingers and brought them down one by one. When she brought down the last digit, they both summoned their atronachs.

 _WULD!_

In an instant, Marielle was in front of the instructor. She balled her hand into a fist and struck the mage on the nose. He yelped as he sent a lightning spell at her, Marielle screamed as she felt her muscles tighten and fell to the ground. Thankfully, her natural magic resistance kicked in and she quickly recovered from it. She stood up as the mage healed himself, he then took out a dagger and launched himself at her. She attempted to dodge the attack, but was cut on her upper arm. Marielle grunted, she gripped her arm and cast a minor healing spell to close the wound.

Her atronach run up to the mage, used its arm to strike him and sent him flying to the ground. Marielle took the opportunity to approach the dazed male and thrust the blade into his chest; after a moment, he stopped moving.

A firebolt, that was a little to close for comfort, flew passed her. She turned around to see one of the mages, she wasted no time and charged. She gathered her magicka and began throwing her own firebolts at her opponent. The mage quickly brought up a ward in front of her, Marielle continued to throw spells to force her to keep up the barrier.

Deciding that she was close enough, Marielle kicked the mage in the stomach. At the unexpected attack, she doubled over and dropped to her knees. Marielle grabbed at her hair and forced her head down as she brought the sword down to stab the blade into the back of her neck.

Marielle let the body hit the ground as she stepped back to catch her breath. She jumped when her atronach slammed the ground, she then heard a cry that was cut off. Teldryn was standing over the other mage and pulled his weapon from the lifeless body, cleaning it using the mage's robes. As he finished putting his sword away, he glanced over to the cages and motioned for Marielle to look.

"What should we do with that one?" he asked.

Marielle approached to see a humanoid with deathly pale skin, a face that was monstrous and bright glowing eyes.

More vampires.

"Leave it like we did the others" she dismissed as the creature looked to her and bared its fangs.

Paying it no mind, she and Teldryn continued on their path until they reached a large room with coffins, Marielle made a face as the lids shot open. She squinted her eyes to see further down the room and saw that two mages were conducting a ritual at an altar.

Necromancers.

Marielle and Teldryn glanced at each other an nodded before they both rushed forward, their atronachs followed to handle the undead. Fortunately for them, the mages were too engrossed in what they were doing to notice them at the last minute. Both mages were quickly taken care of.

"Ugh. Can't get any worse than summoning the dead" Teldryn sneered.

"Oh yes. It can" Marielle replied.

"Really? How so?" He questioned.

"Let me tell you about Yngvild" She repressed the urge to shudder.

As they made their way further in Fellglow Keep, they encountered a few more rooms with summoners. So far, fortune favored them and the hostile mages were relatively easy to handle, though their atronachs had since faded back to Oblivion.

"He said **what** when he saw you?" Teldryn asked, horror and disgust evident in his voice.

"He said ' _Ah, another plaything for my collection_ '" she recounted, this time letting out a noise of revulsion.

They climbed some steps and arrived in a makeshift library, they paused when a male mage quickly leapt from behind one of the shelves and attacked. Marielle brought up a ward, which harmlessly dissapated the spell. A loud yelp from Teldryn caught her attention, her eyes went to the Dunmer and saw him with an ice spike embedded in his shoulder.

She leapt behind a shelf before deactivating her ward, she then gathered her magicka and summoned another frost atronach to help Teldryn take care of the second mage, she turned to focus on the other mage but was hit by a thunderbolt. She yelled in pain and staggered back, she snarled as she saw the mage approach her.

As soon as the mage was close enough, Marielle leapt forward and body slammed into him. As he staggered back she quickly grabbed her sword and plunged into his abdomen, he gurgled as she threw him off the blade.

Marielle heard the second mage cry out as the atronach slammed him into the wall, she grimaced as she heard a loud cracking sound come from him, the mage fell to the ground with his chest caved in. With their enemies now dead; Marielle focused on her companion, she relaxed visibly when she saw him healing his own wounds.

"Mind handing me a magicka potion" he held out his free hand, Marielle dug into her bag and placed one into his outstretched palm. He gave his thanks before downing the vial.

"You good to go?" she questioned.

"Ready." Teldryn responded, nodding and rolling his shoulders.

After yet another fight with a mage and a frost atronach, Marielle was feeling rather tired. As she and Teldryn climbed the stairs to where the books were being held, she hoped that she could avoid another confrontation.

"So, you're the one who has been causing all this ruckus. How nice to meet you" the Altmer woman greeted, mockingly.

"Who are you now?" Marielle asked, a slight frown on her face.

"Names no longer matter. Though you may refer to me as The Caller. Now what is your reason for being here?"

"I'm just here for the college's books" Marielle pointed to the pedestal in front of her.

"ONe of Aren's lackeys then? How disappointing" she sneered.

"You show great promise...You come here, kill my assistants and disrupt my work. It's quite annoying. So, I don't think I'll be giving you anything"

Divines give me strength. Marielle thought, glancing upward.

"Look. Just let me leave with the books" she started, looking down at the book in front of her. It was The Last King of the Ayleids. "I'm sure you don't need anything from some history books"

The woman looked thoughtful for a moment before grunting and waving her hand dismissively.

"Fine. Take them and leave. Never return here, or else you'll face my full wrath"

Marielle nodded, grabbing the books before heading back where they had come from. She smiled slightly, happy to avoid a fight with the Altmer woman and from potentially damaging the books. as they descended down the stairs, Marielle remembered the bed chambers from the upper levels main room, she yawned.

Perhaps a rest is in order.

* * *

Author's note: Wow, I finally updated. As you may have noticed, I edited the story a bit. Lulu is now Meeko, all the times I've played Skyrim I didn't know that he was a fixed encounter. I've also edited some of the scenes and dialogue from the College's main quest to try and make it flow. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the newest chapter.

Dir, Volaan - Die, intruder

Aav Dilon - join the dead


End file.
